LABOUR backbenchers will meet asylum-seekers staying on the Bibby Stockholm barge today, after a man attemped suicide having learned he would be transferred there.

Nadia Whittome and Lloyd Russell-Moyle will be denied access to the vessel in Portland, Dorset, after Home Secretary Suella Braverman failed to respond to a letter from several Labour MPs requesting access earlier this month.

But they will meet some of the asylum-seekers living on board, as well as local mayor and Labour councillor Carralyn Parkes, who lost a High Court fight against Ms Braverman over the lawfulness of housing asylum-seekers on the barge.

A 23-year-old Nigerian man meanwhile remains in a serious condition in hospital, having made an attempt on his own life in an Essex hotel car park after hearing he was due to be transferred to the accommodation barge on Thursday.

People were moved back to the vessel earlier this month, more than two months after it was evacuated following the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply.

Nottingham East MP Ms Whittome said: “We are disappointed that Suella Braverman has not granted our request to visit the barge itself in order to assess living conditions.

“Visits such as this are crucial to ensure that minimum living standards are scrupulously upheld on the barge, as they clearly have not been in the recent past.

She added its residents should have their asylum claims assessed quickly and fairly, “instead of being used as props in the government’s theatre of cruelty.”

Mr Russell-Moyle said: “It is so important that the voices of the people most impacted by the government’s hostile and chaotic asylum system are heard, and that is why we will be meeting asylum-seekers on this trip and also local residents who oppose the way the issue has been handled by the government.”

Home Office officials said the MPs’ request to access the barge was not personally reviewed by the Home Secretary and that visits were limited to those “who have a direct link to the site,” due it being a place of residence.

Nicola David, founder of One Life To Live campaign group, told the Morning Star: “I’m absolutely delighted that politicians are taking an interest.

“If the Home Office are telling us it’s fine then prove it — let the backbenchers on board.”