Members of the public should set up patrols near hotels housing asylum seekers to keep women and children safe, according to Reform deputy leader Richard Tice. Mr Tice called for men in particular to take part in patrols “within the bounds of the law”, as he warned of “sexual assaults, leering and jeering” taking place near hotels.
The Reform MP said: “I think we should absolutely ensure that our women and children are safe in this country. And if that involves a few extra patrols on a sort of neighbourhood watch-style basis within the bounds of the law, because there just aren’t sufficient police able to be out there on the streets for whatever reason, then yes, I think that is a sensible, community-spirited thing to do.”
Protests outside a hotel for asylum seekers in Epping were prompted by allegations that a man attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
Reform MP Sarah Pochin earlier this week claimed women “are at risk of sexual assault and rape” from men arriving in the UK “who do not share our values, who do not share our culture”.
Mr Tice told Times Radio: “Clearly, men protecting women is a normal, sensible, good thing in the United Kingdom. We’ve got centuries of doing the same. It’s the gentlemanly thing to do. And of course, traditionally, we would like our police to keep all our children and women and men safe.
“But regrettably, the scale of the challenge has become so huge and the police have become so distracted, pursuing online tweets and other unnecessary things, that people are being left to their own devices. And that involves essentially setting up their own versions of Neighbourhood Watch with a slightly more focus on specific safety.
“Obviously, one must remain the right side of the law. But it is part of our law also, for example, the use of citizens’ arrest where there are no police there or could be there in the immediate future.
“So, yes, stay the right side of the law, but it’s actually part of our neighbourly duty to protect our own. And the situation has reached such grave, serious levels that law-abiding citizens, mums, dads, brothers, uncles, are furious about what is going on and the significant preponderance of sexual catcalling, harassment, leering, sneering, jeering, and sexual assaults and rapes that are taking place, coincidentally, near a number of these asylum-seeker hotels. That is the harsh reality.”
As the Express revealed, 50,000 migrants have now arrived illegally in the UK on small boats since Labour came to power.
Former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, now Lady Smith, attempted to place the blame on the Tories in a television interview, saying; “I think it’s tough because the last government enabled this hideous criminal activity to really get its roots into across Europe.”
Concerns about safety were also raised by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch during a visit to Epping. She said: “The people who I spoke to are having a lot of concerns about safety. Mothers told me that they’re worried about their daughters going to school. They’re getting harassed. They stopped jogging in the park because there are men lurking in bushes.
“Communities shouldn’t have to be paying for this. And what I saw in Epping really, really upset me. I can see why many of those people are protesting.”
She called for the creation of “detention centres” where asylum seekers could be housed instead of hotels.
“We need to process people in detention centres. We need to build proper camps where we keep people safe, whether they are migrants or the local communities.
“But just having people who can stay in a hotel, go out and come as they please – whether or not they’re criminals, we have no idea who these people are – I don’t think that that’s right. And it’s gone on long enough.”
