THE UK Government has been branded “discourteous and ignorant” by a city MP over its handling of the asylum seeker crisis.

Paul Sweeney, Glasgow North East Labour MP, whose constituency is home to many asylum seekers said MPs have been ignored by the government.

Mr Sweeney said on reserved matters such as asylum and immigration MPs should be the “primary interface” for government ministers, but were not invited to a meeting to discuss the threat of lock changes to hundreds in the city.

Ms Nokes met with Glasgow City Council officials to discuss the ongoing situation where more than 300 asylum seekers face being locked out of their homes and made homeless by Serco, the private firm who has the contract to house them.

However, she said she did not have time to meet with MPs over asylum on her visit to the city.

She did however find time to meet with Kirsten Hair, Conservative MP for Angus, to discuss soft fruit farming.

Mr Sweeney said: “This is particularly concerning given that I deal with a high volume of asylum and immigration cases due to the demographics of my constituency.”

Mr Sweeney said he would be raising the issue with the Speaker of the House of Commons when MPs return after the summer recess.

The MP also said there was no direct response from the Home Office to a letter signed by Glasgow MPs and councillors instead Serco boss Rupert Soames responded to defend the firm’s actions.

Mr Sweeney added: “This is the second time that a UK Government minister has displaced and undermined my role as both a Shadow Minister and constituency Member of Parliament by dealing directly and exclusively with Members of the Scottish Parliament on matters that remain reserved under the Scotland Act 2016 in as many weeks.

“This is not only professionally discourteous and ignorant, but these actions also only serve to undermine the role of Members of the UK Parliament representing Scottish constituencies at Westminster and indeed undermines the entire political basis of the United Kingdom.”

At the meeting with the council the minister agreed that Glasgow city Council could carry out individual assessments on each of the asylum seekers but refused to guarantee there would be no lock changes.