WATCH: Former UK minister suggests brothel needed near village housing 1,250 asylum seekers

CALGARY — Former Conservative minister Edwina Currie has drawn attention after suggesting that a brothel would be needed near a rural English village where about 1,200 young male asylum seekers are expected to be accommodated.Currie made the remark during a discussion on Times Radio about asylum accommodation at a former military site near Little Piddington, Buckinghamshire.In a video from the discussion, Currie raised concerns about the potential social impact of placing a large number of young men in a small rural community.“I’m not sure I’m going to be allowed to say this, you’re probably going to shut me up in no time at all,” Currie said before making the comment.“But the obvious thing that 1,200 young men are going to need in the middle of a village like Little Piddington is a brothel.” Currie immediately acknowledged that such a facility was unlikely to be provided.“I don’t think they’re going to provide that! I have a feeling that’s not going to be allowed,” she said..Author and commentator A.N. Wilson, who was also involved in the discussion, continued the point about what asylum seekers housed at the site would do in their spare time.“Supposing we don’t have a brothel in Piddington as Edwina suggests, what are you going to do all the time?” Wilson said, according to the reported exchange.Currie, who served as a Conservative MP for South Derbyshire from 1983 to 1997 and as a junior health minister under Margaret Thatcher, remains a prominent political commentator after leaving Parliament.There is no evidence that brothels for asylum seekers form any part of British government policy. Currie's comments were made in the context of a broader debate over the placement of large numbers of asylum seekers in rural communities..Residents of Piddington, an Oxfordshire village of roughly 350 people, are now facing the prospect of 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers being accommodated at a nearby former Ministry of Defence site.Prime Minister Andy Burnham has argued that more “affluent areas” should play a greater role in accommodating asylum seekers, while residents in communities such as Piddington have raised concerns about the scale and location of the proposed facility.The proposed accommodation is part of the UK government's broader effort to reduce its reliance on asylum hotels and move people into alternative accommodation, including former military sites. The government has defended the approach as part of a wider effort to distribute asylum accommodation more evenly across the country.

WATCH: Former UK minister suggests brothel needed near village housing 1,250 asylum seekers

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