CONSERVATIVE deputy chairman Lee Anderson was slammed today for suggesting sending refugees to Orkney after the failure of his party’s Rwanda scheme.

Speaking on right-wing entertainment channel GB News, Mr Anderson said people seeking refuge should be sent to the far-north archipelago while their claims were processed.

“If people are genuinely escaping war or persecution then a nice Scottish island with a few outbuildings would be suitable,” he said.

“If we can get some accommodation up there, keep these people safe – these people want to be safe, they’re fleeing so-called persecution from these war-torn countries.

“If we can find an island in the Orkneys or up there that’s got no-one on there to start off with, put some decent accommodation on, then it’s job done.”

Challenged on the comments in Westminster, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt joked that Mr Anderson’s suggestion “would be definitely out, given the reliability of SNP ferry services.”

Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael said: “I would be astonished if Lee Anderson could even find Orkney – or in his words ‘the Orkneys’ – on a map.

“His remarks show inhumanity towards desperate and vulnerable people – and disdain towards island communities to boot.”

Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess branded the remarks “insensitive” and “out of touch,” adding: “Our islands are not empty wildernesses – they’re thriving communities.

“They are not remote places with a few outbuildings.”

Ahead of the STUC’s annual St Andrew’s Day march in Glasgow on Saturday – a celebration of community activists and trade unionists fighting racism and the UK government’s anti-refugee rhetoric – general secretary Roz Foyer told the Star: “The Rwanda plan is dead in the water, much like Lee Anderson’s chances of being re-elected.

“The day we take anything he says seriously is the day we pack up and go home.”