Labour MP Tahir Ali has been lambasted after campaigning for a new airport in Pakistan, despite his constituents in Birmingham suffering from a growing refuse crisis in the city.
The representative for Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley has been criticised for supporting the construction of an airport in Mirpur, Kashmir - approximately 4,000 miles away from the UK.
The controversy comes as Birmingham residents face severe disruption from ongoing bin strikes, with waste piling up across the city's streets.
Ali took to social media to explain his support for the airport project in the disputed Kashmir region, and vowed to "continue to push for the cause".
Labour MP Tahir Ali has been scolded for backing a new airport in Pakistan despite Birmingham's ongoing refuse crisis
GB News / Parliament TV
Hitting out at Ali on GB News, commentator Mike Parry said the move was "outrageous", and stressed that Birmingham's bin crisis is "causing health issues" for residents.
Parry raged: "It's utterly outrageous. People's walls in front of their homes are starting to crumble because of the weight of the debris that's there, and the way that the rodents are burrowing in below the pavement. It's an outrage.
"I don't use the term third world as a derogatory term, but we're certainly not first or second world when people are coming from distant parts of Asia to point out that the second city in this country, the United Kingdom, which once proudly introduced civilisation to the world, is now looking very much like what used to be called a third world country."
Offering a defence for Ali, former Labour Adviser Matthew Laza argued that although the "timing isn't great" for the minister, there are a "whole host of MPs" backing the airport.
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Ali claimed he will 'continue to push' for the airport's permissions to be granted
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Laza explained: "My view is timing is not great - and in fact, there's a whole host of about 20 Labour MPs backing this.
"The reason is because members of their community, their constituents who have Pakistani heritage, want this airport to open up so that it can make it easier to see their families."
Infuriated by Laza's remarks, Parry claimed it is "not normal" for a British-based MP to be campaigning for a new airport thousands of miles across the world.
Parry told GB News: "For goodness' sake! You're trying to talk as if it's normal for an MP in Birmingham to work on an airport 4,000 miles away, to make it more convenient for some of his constituents to go and see their families.
Parry told GB News that it is 'not normal' for a UK MP to be campaigning for a foreign airport
GB News
"If we weren't giving the Chagos Islands £9million a year, couldn't we use that money to clear up what's going on in Birmingham?"
Weighing in on the discussion, host Andrew Pierce stressed that Birmingham residents are experiencing "real health issues" because of the bin crisis, and it is his "duty as MP" to raise the alarm on the issue.
Andrew stated: "As a member of Parliament for Birmingham, he's got a duty to speak out about this. The strike is causing real health issues - the rubbish is so bad, the rubbish is moving because there are rats and foxes in it.
"The Labour Council cut the pay of the refuse workers by some of them up to £8,000. They now have agency workers to man the bin lorries. The money they've cut from bin workers' wages they've now expended on agencies - there is no logic to this."
