Caroline Lucas has slammed the Home Office for “blasting out a poisonous ‘them and us’ narrative” over the refugee crisis.

Ms Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, criticised the government’s new bill on refugees as a “hard-right foghorn” following comments made by a minister last week.

Further slamming the government during Prime Minister’s Questions, the MP called for the creation of a family visa scheme for Sudanese refugees similar to the ones implemented for people fleeing Ukraine.

In her question towards PM Rishi Sunak, Ms Lucas said: “His government’s vile and immoral refugee ban bill and the toxic language coming from the Home Office isn’t even dog whistle politics, it is a giant far-right foghorn blasting out a poisonous ‘them and us’ narrative.

“It plumbed new depths last week when the Home Office minister [Robert Jenrick] claimed that people trying to come to the UK ‘tend to have completely different values to those in the UK’.

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“Can the Prime Minister explain what he thinks are so different about the values held by the people of war-torn Sudan and what values are stopping him from creating a Sudanese family visa scheme like he did for the people of Ukraine?”

Thousands of people have been fleeing Sudan after fighting broke out between Sudanese military and paramilitary vying for control of the country.

The fighting began last month with a week-long ceasefire allowing refugees to be airlifted out of the country.

The Argus: Crowds of people in SudanCrowds of people in Sudan

In response to the question, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “This country has a proud history of welcoming almost half a million refugees over the past seven years and we will always continue to do so but our ability to do that is absolutely hampered when we have tens of thousands of people illegally crossing the Channel every year.

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“It is precisely because we want to help the most vulnerable people whether they be in Syria and Sudan and Afghanistan or elsewhere we must get a grip of this problem, break the cycle of the criminal gangs and target our resources and compassion on those who most need it.”