Lib Dems accuse government of using language that ‘stokes division’published at 18:25 GMT

18:25 GMT

Max Wilkinson

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Max Wilkinson says it is not helpful for the home secretary to say the country is being torn apart by immigration.

“Acknowledging the challenge facing our nation is one thing, but stoking division by using immoderate language is another,” he says.

Wilkinson now turns to Mahmood’s plan to revoke the government’s legal duty to provide asylum seekers with accommodation and the need for them to support themselves.

He says, however, that she is still banning them from working, adding that it “makes no sense”.

As a reminder, asylum seekers are not allowed to work for the first 12 months after arriving but they can apply for jobs after that period.

In response, Mahmood says she wishes she “had the privilege of not seeing the division the issue of migration is creating across this country”.

She adds that, unlike him, she is the one who is regularly called racial slurs and “told to go back home”.

She says it is not ok for people in the Commons to “not acknowledge the real experience of those outside the house, we are supposed to be here to reflect that experience”.