BOLTON’S UKIP party has accused a Labour MP of doing a 'complete u-turn' on the issue of asylum seekers.

The party believes Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, has changed her mind on the issue of people seeking asylum in the borough after she criticised UKIP’s stance on the topic before last year’s General Election.

In April last year, Jeff Armstrong, UKIP’S candidate for the Bolton South East seat said the local group would seek to end an arrangement which offers people fleeing war and persecution sanctuary in Bolton.

He was responding to news that Bolton had again been placed in the top 10 towns and cities in the country for accommodating asylum seekers and said he felt the town had “done its share” and called on other councils to help out.

At the time, Ms Qureshi labelled the comments as “petty, hard-hearted and repulsive” adding: “To try and say that Bolton — which has a population of 287,000 — is going to suffer because of about 800 people coming here belies belief.”

Last week The Bolton News revealed that the borough now has the fifth highest concentration of asylum seekers in the country.

The article cited a recent call from local UKIP leader Sean Hornby that areas in the south of the country — including Prime Minister David Cameron’s Witney constituency — should be taking a fairer share of those seeking a safe haven in Britain.

Ms Qureshi said she agreed with this principal — and that while she is proud of the town’s history of helping people flee war and persecution — the current system is not fair.

She added: “I totally agree that the distribution of asylum seekers should be done fairly and equally across the country.

“You do not see too many asylum seekers living in the southern shires or leafy areas where Tory MPs are based.”

Bolton UKIP has now accused Ms Qureshi of changing her mind to try and appeal to voters.

Group chairman, Cllr Paul Richardson said: “It seems Ms Qureshi now agrees that the current system is unfair, despite her attack on us last year for saying exactly the same thing.

“We wonder what has changed her mind — she has now done a complete u-turn.”

He added: “It is an example of how the MP changes her mind to try and appeal to voters when she finally realises she is completely out of touch with the normal man and woman in the street — sadly, this seems to be the way most career politicians work.”

He asked if Ms Qureshi would now like to apologise for her previous “attack” on his party, but she said she stands by what she said.

She said: “I fully stand by it. UKIP were saying Bolton should not take any more asylum seekers and I am not saying that — I think we should keep helping people but I believe other areas — like the Tory shires — should be doing their bit as I said.

“I have never been against the idea of Bolton helping these people — but I think they should be fairly dispersed across the country.”