Lawyers claim Meg misled parliament

According to Morning Star newspaper, a firm of human rights lawyers representing women at Yarl's Wood detention centre have accused Meg Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, of misleading parliament.

It is not a new claim. Some of the issues are discussed or linked to in this piece: Meg Hillier defended by the Telegraph.

I interviewed Meg Hillier on Monday and will post something later this week. We didn't talk much about Yarl's Wood though - more about whether her ministerial responsibilities impinge on her role as an MP and other Hackney related subjects.

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."

Third accuser - has Meg misled parliament?

Yesterday (Monday) Diane Abbott wrote a piece in the Guardian which pushed a confrontation she'd had with Meg Hillier in Parliament - Hackney MP mums battle over motherhood - to a new level.

This time Diane came close to accusing Meg of misleading parliament in relation to Yarl's Wood detention centre: "Although the ministers might query the details of some of their cases, the overall picture is very different from the one painted by the minister in her letter to colleagues."

But she isn't the first. In 2008 this letter also accused Meg Hillier of passing incorrect information to Parliament: "It's come to my attention that on September 30th, a letter was sent out by Meg Hillier, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, at the Home Office. The letter was sent to several MPs, who had enquired on behalf of their constituents, about the treatment on Baby C in Yarl's Wood, in June 2008... In this letter, Meg Hillier assures MPs that Brian Pollett and Jeremy Oppenheim were reviewing this case personally... I have to inform you that this is factually incorrect...."

In January Blood and Property asked "Did Meg Hillier mislead parliament?" after a piece in Open Democracy (Roll calls, body searches and sex games by Clare Sambrook) which said Meg had perpetuated misrepresentations and created new ones about Yarl's Wood.

Did Meg Hillier mislead parliament?

That's the allegation being made by a story in Open Democracy called Roll calls, body searches and sex games.

Clare Sambrook of End Child Detention Now, says that Meg Hillier's defence of child detention at Yarl's Wood perpetuated misrepresentations and created new ones:

"When Home Office minister Meg Hillier, stood up in the House on Monday 14 December to defend the detention of children, she repeated one of Wood’s inaccuracies –

"Let me point out that the report in question did not take into account the views of the clinicians who worked with those children and who know them."

– and threw in one all of her own: "There are many pressures on children, and it is not clear that those pressures and problems arise merely from detention."

The evidence is crystal clear. According to the peer-reviewed medical evidence, children experienced "a sudden deterioration in mental health due to the experience of detention rather than any pre-existing problems."

"While the Government misrepresents the evidence, children’s suffering goes on."

At least four children a week who are seeking asylum go missing from the care of local authorities, a BBC investigation has discovered.