Meg Hillier defended by the Telegraph

Meg Hillier has been under fire from a number of MPs for her denials of poor conditions at Yarl's Wood detention centre - Diane Abbott is among her critics: Did Meg mislead parliament? and Hackney MP mums battle over motherhood.

Today a piece in the Telegraph claimed that stories about hunger strikes and abuse at Yarl's Wood detention centre verged on the fictional and that Meg's stance had been correct.

The Telegraph in support: "I don’t usually support the Government’s version of events – but this time, the evidence is pretty much overwhelming. There are CCTV cameras in Yarl’s Wood, and none of them has recorded “violence, mistreatment and racist abuse” involving any of the women in the “hunger strike”. But they have filmed the “hunger strikers” buying, and eating, items such as soup, noodles, crisps and chocolate from the Centre’s shop."

Versus Diane in the Guardian: "Junior Home Office minister Meg Hillier MP is my parliamentary neighbour and a friend. But she has never visited Yarl's Wood detention centre. If she had done, then I believe that she would never have signed off the letter, sent last week to every member of parliament, rubbishing the Guardian's report about desperate women detainees currently on hunger strike there."