A NORTH-EAST MP has criticised a debate on Gypsies and travellers for "othering" their communities.

North West Durham MP Laura Pidcock said the tone of the debate would have come across as "nonsensical" if MPs were debating black people and local communities.

She told MPs: "I found the tone of this debate quite odd. When I saw that we were having a general debate on Gypsies and Travellers I thought I must be missing some substantive motion that was more specific and that would narrow this down somewhat - that would allow us to debate a specific point rather than a general debate about entire communities.

"I say communities purposefully because Gypsy and Traveller people are not a unified group - there is not one community that we can talk about.

"And in the minister's statement there was positioning of Gypsies and Travellers and local communities - and they are one and the same thing because Gypsies and Travellers are part of local communities and are our constituents if residing in our constituencies so there should not be an 'othering' of those communities."

Ms Pidcock, Labour, added: "Imagine - and I know this might be a controversial point - if there were a general debate on black people, for example, and local communities: you would see how nonsensical that would sound to the outside observer."

Her criticism came after Tory MP Philip Davies (Shipley) said there was a "massive problem" with crime among the communities, as "five per cent of prisoners identified themselves as Gypsy, Romany or Traveller".

"Now it doesn't take a mathematical genius to work out that if something like 0.1 per cent of the population in England and Wales is a Traveller or Gypsy, and if five per cent of the prison population identify themselves as Gypsies or Travellers we've got a massive problem in terms of crime," he told the Commons.

"Now it may well be that there are some people, no doubt the sort of politically correct people who have taken over the Labour Party opposite, who might suggest that this is all due to the fact that all judges and magistrates are racist against Gypsies and unfairly punish them in the courts.

"The fact of the matter is, as we all know in our heart of hearts, whether it is politically correct or not to say so, is that actually there is a much higher level of criminal activity amongst Gypsies and Travellers than there is in the community and that's reflected in the fact that so many more of them are in prison than the population at large."

Ms Pidcock said "tired and powerful stereotypes" about Traveller and Gypsy communities still exist, and added that she heard someone on the Government benches shout that they "do not pay their taxes" during the debate.

Mr Davies intervened, saying: "John Grant, who is a chief inspector at the RSPCA... and he is a Gypsy himself... he said, 'I would estimate that 95 per cent of Gypsies don't pay any taxes, a lot of their money is held in new motors, new caravans and good quality horses'."

Ms Pidcock replied: "Well there are many types of taxes that can be paid by communities and we also know very many rich people who avoid paying their taxes which isn't subject to a long debate."