NEWPORT MP Paul Flynn has accused prime minister David Cameron of being “ignorant of what is going on in his own constituency” following claims around the number of asylum seekers settled there.

In January a Home Office report showed Newport had the eighth-highest number of asylum seekers per person in the UK, while relatively few are sent to more affluent areas – such as the prime minister’s own constituency of Witney in Oxfordshire.

And, speaking in Parliament on Monday, March 21, the long-serving Newport West MP quizzed the prime minister around how many asylum seekers had been settled in his constituency.

He said: “Will the prime minister agree to compensate those authorities that fully take asylum seekers in, and, in the interests of the asylum seekers and the local community, will he help to spread these asylum seekers fairly throughout the country?

“Will he tell us how many asylum seekers his constituency helped last year and how many he expects to welcome this year?”

The prime minister replied: “As for my own constituency, a number of families have been resettled, although I do not have the number off the top of my head.”

But Home Office statistics show there have been no asylum seekers settled in the West Oxfordshire area since late 2013, in comparison with 464 in Newport.

Speaking afterwards Mr Flynn, who has represented Newport in Westminster since 1987 and has long campaigned for refugees to be distributed more evenly across the UK, said: "It seems extraordinary that the prime minister appears to be ignorant about what is going on in his own constituency.

“This is a matter of great importance and we should be leading by example not just by exaltation.

“David Cameron seeks credit for compassion he is showing towards Syrian refugees with serious problems but he seems happy to allow other parts of the country to bear the strain on their education and health services."

A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister was referring specifically to the Vulnerable Person Relocation Scheme – the government’s pledge to rehome up to 20,000 Syrian refugees by 2020. Although Witney is involved in the scheme, statistics are not broken down by local authority.