An MP who blocked North Wales police and crime commissioner Arfon Jones on Twitter has been blasted for “dehumanising” refugees.

Mr Jones criticised Sarah Atherton, Conservative MP for Wrexham, for saying that the Navy should be deployed to end boat crossings by refugees across the English Channel.

Ms Atherton, who was elected to parliament for the first time in December, has been widely condemned on social media for her “misleading” and “stupid” comments.

“I think it’s a cynical stunt to distract from the way the Tory government has badly mishandled the coronavirus crisis, and the algorithm debacle with A-level results in England,” Mr Jones said.  

“What she has done in indefensible because it feeds bigotry and prejudice and will do nothing to reduce hate crime in our communities. It’s stigmatising people who are perceived to be different.  

“Sarah Atherton needs to realise that she’s talking about human beings who have had their lives turned upside down by war here. These are people’s sons, daughters, mums and dads. Some of them are very young children. The idea of weaponising the military against them is chilling.

“The last thing we should be doing is dehumanising them by stoking up hatred. We wouldn’t like it if our own friends and family were treated that way.”

In response to being blocked by Ms Atherton on Twitter, he said: “I think it’s an incredibly small-minded and petty way to respond to being challenged on policy.

“She prevents people from replying to her tweets, which shows how little respect she has for her constituents and is typical of the way the Tories try to dodge public scrutiny for their incompetence.”

In a Twitter post Ms Atherton said: “What we are seeing on a huge scale with the boats crossing the Channel is precisely that, flagrant violations of our immigration law by economic migrants and human-trafficking gangs.

“Returning migrants who have reached the UK is not easy, as the Prime Minister has acknowledged, due to a legal framework owing to our previous EU membership, which we are still bound by until the transition period ends on 31 December 2020.

“This framework places undue power in the hands of unaccountable human rights lawyers who do not have our country’s best interests at heart.

“Until the transition period ends and we can once again reassert our sovereignty over asylum and immigration matters we must stop these boats from reaching British waters.

“UK Border Forces should receive whatever assistance is required from HM Armed Forces in this endeavour.”

Her public statement was heavily criticised for containing a number of errors such as mixing up the asylum and visa systems, and misunderstanding international law.