CHILDREN have been told to “avoid migrant hot-spots” on their way home from school, senior Tory Robert Jenrick has claimed.
He said mums told him that schools warned pupils to steer clear of certain areas — with the kids saying men at the hotels make them feel unsafe.
The Shadow Justice Secretary spoke after visiting Epping, Essex — where protests flared in July when an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl just days after arriving in Britain.
Writing in The Sun, Mr Jenrick said: “I spoke to teens, parents and grandparents — all rightly concerned about the safety of their community.
“These weren’t racists or far-right thugs — they were mums in pink T-shirts with Union Jack bunting.
“One mother told me how her daughter’s school had written to her suggesting children avoid certain parts of town on their walk home.
“Her young daughter told me that men from the hotels loiter outside certain spots ‘where they look at us’.”
But Mr Jenrick faced questions himself after being pictured alongside Eddy Butler, a founder of the banned neo-Nazi terror group Combat 18.
A Labour spokesman said: “Robert Jenrick is a disgrace. Standing alongside someone with a long history of involvement with neo-Nazi terror groups, at a protest organised by a far-right party, shows just how far he and the Tories have sunk.”
Asked about Eddy Butler, a source close to Mr Jenrick hit back: “No idea who this guy is and Rob didn’t speak to him.
“Rob just spoke with peaceful protesters.”
Supermarket worker Dean Smith, 51, of Epping, Essex, has been warned he faces jail after admitting violent disorder outside a migrant hotel in the town.
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