Suella Braverman is facing a mounting backlash for claiming Channel migrants have “values at odds with our country” – including from a Right-wing Tory MP.
The home secretary was criticised by backbencher Jonathan Gullis, who said Ms Braverman’s comments were “inappropriate” and “unreasonable”.
Mr Gullis agreed with Ms Braverman’s suggestion that migrants crossing the English Channel show “higher levels of criminality”, despite her offering no figures to back up the claim.
But, asked about the home secretary’s comments on migrants’ values, the Stoke MP said they made him feel “uncomfortable”.
Mr Gullis, who previously suggested it would be “acceptable” to house migrants in tents, told LBC: “I don’t feel comfortable with the mentioning of the values. I don’t think that was appropriate, nor was it right.
“I think the home secretary does have a point around the criminality… I think it’s perfectly right to say that there is of course criminality within this.
“But I don’t think that the values and the broad stroke that was brushed to everyone was right or reasonable.”
Ms Braverman on Wednesday said migrants who come to the UK across the English Channel in small boats “possess values which are at odds with our country” with “heightened levels of criminality”.
“I think that uncontrolled and unprecedented levels of illegal migration are totally unacceptable to our country and to our values,” she told LBC.
Her comments came after immigration minister Robert Jenrick said uncontrolled migration “threatens to cannibalise the compassion of the British public”. She agreed, linking those who arrive on small boats to “drug dealing, exploitation and prostitution”.
Labour also condemned Ms Braverman’s comments about migrants’ values, with a spokesman calling it the “sort of invective” that signals that the policies being promoted “have failed”.
The row came as senior backbench Tories, including former prime minister Theresa May and ex-party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, voiced concerns in Parliament about the impact the government’s flagship immigration reforms could have on modern slavery protections.
But the bill cleared the House of Commons without any drama in the votes after MPs gave it a third reading by 289 votes to 230, a majority 59.
Although the bill cleared the Commons, it will face a stiff test in the Lords when it undergoes further scrutiny.
