The Deputy Prime Minister has refused to condemn the Home Office decision to paint over a children's mural in a centre for asylum seekers.

Oliver Dowden is the latest Conservative frontbencher to defend the widely criticised order to paint over pictures of Mickey Mouse and Baloo from the Jungle Book at the Kent Asylum Unit.

That order reportedly came from Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, with the work being carried out earlier this week. 

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Initial reports suggested this was because they were deemed “too welcoming”.

The story was first reported by the I newspaper, which reported that staff at the centre were “horrified" by the "cruel order”.

Raising it during Prime Minister's Questions, the SNP's Pete Wishart described the decision as "grotesque."

The Herald:

The Perth and North Perthshire MP told the Commons: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so grotesque as the painting-over of Mickey Mouse on a children’s mural, as was done by the Home Office in a detention centre in Kent.

“No minister so far has raised the necessary compassion or concern to speak out about this.

“So can I ask the Deputy Prime Minister to look into the deeper recesses of his soul and just simply condemn it?”

Mr Dowden replied: “I’ll tell him what real compassion looks like and that means stopping the vile people smuggling trade across the Channel condemning women and children to death."

He said the Government was "taking action to deal with it, with our stop the boats bill" which the opposition parties had voted against.

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In the Lords on Monday, Home Office Minister Lord Murray told peers that artworks weren’t initially commissioned by the Home Office.

“It’s clearly the correct decision that these facilities have the requisite decoration befitting of their purpose,” he said.

Among those criticising the department’s stance was Tory donor Lord Brownlow, who said he was “quite frankly ashamed” of the minister’s answer.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Jenrick claimed the murals were painted over because they were not “age appropriate” for the majority of the young people staying there.

“The cohort of unaccompanied children who passed through last year were largely teenagers and we didn’t feel the site was age-appropriate, but it does contain a range of support for children and infants,” he said.

“Nothing about the decoration of sites changes the fundamentals that if someone comes to the UK we will treat them with decency and compassion at all times.”