FIVE Scottish Tory MPs voted to strip protections for lone child refugees from the UK Government’s flagship immigration legislation last night.
MPs voted 327 votes to 264 to remove an amendment made by peers which would have required the Government to ensure unaccompanied children in the EU continue to be relocated with close relatives in the UK.
Six Tory MPs rebelled against the Government in an effort to keep the measure in place, including former ministers David Davis and Tim Loughton, but the party mostly voted to reject the amendment.
READ MORE: These Scottish Tories voted against protecting food standards last night
The amendment had been successfully moved in the Lords by refugee campaigner Lord Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child.
The Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill is part of the UK Government’s move towards a new points-based system, which is expected to come in from next year.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross (above) and Scottish Secretary Alister Jack (below) voted against the protections, while West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie, Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid and Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP John Lamont did the same. No vote was recorded for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale MP David Mundell.
Responding to Dubs's call for MPs to support the amendment, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: "Shameful that Scottish Tory MPs voted against this most basic test of our fundamental humanity - to reunite children with their family and to protect them from harm. The UK Government has sunk lower than a snakes belly - and they wonder why Scotland wants out."
The SNP, LibDems and Labour supported the amendment last night. Meanwhile, one former Tory Cabinet minister insisted that removing the protections would be “absolutely vital” to help people get to the UK safely and legally.
Karen Bradley said: “If we want to stop the small boats, if we want to stop the migrants being under the wheel arches of vehicles, if we want to deal with this, we need to deal with it by making sure there is a safe and legal passage.
“If I can quote Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said, ‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river, we need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in’.”
But Loughton, who voted in support of the amendment, added: “We need a Dubs 2 and we need a family reunion scheme regardless of Brexit.
“We need it, we have a great tradition of saving these children, if we don’t have it in this Bill come January 1 we will have no safe and legal route for very, very vulnerable children.”
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