AN anti-refugee petition calling for the UK to “close its borders” has been signed by more people from Thurrock than anywhere else in the country.

The petition on the Parliament website, called “Stop all immigration and close the UK borders until ISIS is defeated”, has been signed by more than 400,000 nationwide.

In the South Basildon and East Thurrock area, 1,696 had backed the petition by the weekend, the highest number in any constituency.

Thurrock had contributed the second highest number of signatories – 1,621 – while no other constituency in the UK had more than 1,500 people sign up.

However, those backing the call find themselves at odds with one of their Tory MPs.

South Basildon and East Thurrock member Stephen Metcalfe believes banning immigration is not a sensible response to concerns about terrorism, fuelled by this month’s attacks in Paris.

He said: “I wouldn’t criticise anyone for signing it and I understand people’s concerns, but completely shutting the borders is giving in to what terrorists want, which is to divide us.

“By yielding to them in this way, we just fuel their rhetoric that we are antiIslamic, which I don’t think we are asanation.

“We have invested £1.9 billion in increasing security to make sure we know what the threats are. The consequences of shutting the borders are extreme.

“It would mean people couldn’t come here on holiday and it would affect our economy and the City of London.”

However, Linda AllportHodge, who leads the Ukip group on Basildon Council, has signed the petition.

She said: “People at the moment are feeling a little bit unsafe in their own territory. We should have no immigration without proper border controls.”