Protesters against housing asylum-seekers at a former old people's home staged an angry demonstration outside the building.

The protest was called by Ed Matts, prospective Tory parliamentary candidate for Oxford West and Abingdon, who said local residents were against turning Oseney Court into an "asylum prison".

But his actions were slammed by Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris, who said Mr Matts was misleading the public by referring to the centre as a detention centre or prison.

Oseney Court, in Botley Road, Oxford, has been empty since the final residents moved out last August. The county council wants to give 45 asylum-seekers homes there for 12 months. Mr Matts said genuine asylum-seekers should be welcomed, but bogus claimants were giving them a bad name.

He said: "Home Office statistics show that most asylum-seekers are not genuine. Local residents are worried that the incidents of aggressive begging will increase significantly if the former home becomes an asylum prison."

Mr Matts sent leaflets to residents in the Botley Road area. One said asylum-seekers "should not be imprisoned in ghettos in residential areas". But Dr Harris, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: "There is no question of anyone having proposed that Oseney Court be used as a detention centre.

"It is a measure of the desperation of Conservatives currently that they invent proposals and then seek to ferment community tension on asylum-seekers."

Story date: Monday 10 April

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