Thérèse Coffey did not say starving people were not her concern

A Facebook post falsely claims to quote the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Thérèse Coffey as saying: “It is not my job to worry about people starving to death in the UK.” This quote is not real, but appears to refer to a response she gave to the Press Association (PA), and a subsequent interview she gave to Sky News, referring to the case of Mercy Baguma.

Mercy Baguma was a woman from Uganda who had been seeking asylum in the UK and was living in Glasgow.

She was found dead alongside her starving child on 22 August. There were reports that she had been forced to stop working by the Home Office and was relying on friends and charities for help. However the circumstances of her death, including whether she had died as a result of starvation, are still unclear.

We can find no evidence that Thérèse Coffey ever said the words attributed to her. The earliest version of the supposed quote from Dr Coffey  we could find was from 5 September on Twitter, which claimed that Dr Coffey said this the previous day.

We have been unable to find any interviews with Dr Coffey from 4 September and she does not appear to have spoken in parliament.

However she was asked about the Mercy Baguma case by a PA reporter on 26 August, to which she reportedly replied “I appreciate you want to talk about other matters, but they’re not really matters for me.”

Then on 2 September she gave an interview to Kay Burley of Sky News, who also asked her about the case, and mentioned that she had previously declined to answer the question.

Dr Coffey replied “I haven't actually been asked about this lady before, so I don't know where that's come from.”

She then went on to say, among other things: “This really is a matter for the Home Office to decide what the immigration status is for each individual.

“I’m conscious that people can also apply for changes to the Home Office if they are struggling with aspects of that.”

She did not however say the quote attributed to her.