Fact Check: List Of MPs Did NOT Show Votes Against Deporting 'Foreign Rapists' -- It Represents 2020 Letter Signatories

Fact Check

  • by: Ed Payne
Fact Check: List Of MPs Did NOT Show Votes Against Deporting 'Foreign Rapists' -- It Represents 2020 Letter Signatories Signed Letter

Does a list show the names of U.K. members of Parliament who voted against deporting "foreign rapists"? No, that's not true: The names on the list do belong to MPs, but it's not a voting list about legislation to deport rapists. Instead, they are cross-party signatories to a 2020 letter raising concerns about Home Office plans to deport 50 people to Jamaica and demanding answers about legal access, appeals and safeguards for those on the flight.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on January 6, 2025. under the on-screen title "Here is a list of MP's who voted against deporting foreign rapists. They all need removing." The post's caption said:

Here is a list of MPs who voted against deporting foreign rapists. These people are evil and need arresting!

We are being invaded. TREASON!

This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:

MP list.png

(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Jan 15 16:21:57 2025 UTC)

This post provided no evidence to support the assertion that the list on social media shows the names of U.K. members of Parliament who voted against deporting "foreign rapists."

Elon Musk

Majority X owner Elon Musk shared and amplified this false social media claim, which has been viewed millions of times. Musk's repost (archived here), where he simply added the word "Unconscionable," appears below:

chrome_ssIxlqhacE.png

(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Jan 15 18:09:31 2025 UTC)

The list

The list of MPs comes from the third page of a three-page letter (archived here) written to then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the letterhead of MP Nadia Whittome and signed by dozens of other lawmakers. The full letter, dated February 9, 2020, and found on the Labour Party website, appears below:

POWERPNT_pNaOvR2jhl.png

(Source: The Labour Party screenshots taken on Wed Jan 15 2025 UTC)

The letter

The letter from bipartisan members of Parliament raised serious concerns in 2020 about a planned deportation flight to Jamaica. They argued it risked wrongful deportations, especially for people with potential claims from the Windrush scandal (archived here) or those who arrived as children.

The MPs called for deportations to stop until the government published and acted on the Windrush Lessons Learned Review (archived here). They also demanded answers about legal access, appeals and safeguards for those on the flight.

Lastly, they urged changes to prevent the automatic deportation of long-term U.K. residents who came as children.

Bottom line: The letter doesn't represent a vote against deporting "foreign rapists." It only expresses the parliamentarians' concerns with this particular deportation flight scheduled for February 11, 2020.

Windrush scandal

A U.K. government report (archived here) says this about Windrush:

The details of the scandal are well known: people who migrated to the UK between 1948 and 1973 and lived and worked there legally were wrongfully detained, denied rights, and threatened with deportation (or actually deported) by the Home Office.

Britannica Kids (archived here) provided these details about this bit of UK history:

The Windrush scandal took place in Britain in the 2010s. The scandal involved the way the government treated a group of immigrants known as the Windrush generation. This group had lived in Britain for decades before they were told they needed certain documents in order to stay there. Even though they were legal residents of the country, many were refused benefits, and some were even deported (forced to leave the country).

Read more

Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims about immigrants are here.

Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving the United Kingdom can be found here.

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  Ed Payne

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN’s coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a Digital Senior Producer for Gray Television’s Digital Content Center, the company’s digital news hub for 100+ TV stations. Ed also worked as a writer and editor for WebMD. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, Ed is the author of two children’s book series: “The Daily Rounds of a Hound” and “Vail’s Tales.” 

Read more about or contact Ed Payne

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