Jeremy Hunt has distanced himself from Suella Braverman’s hardline stance on immigration after backlash to her speech claiming that multiculturalism has failed.
The chancellor, who is married to a Chinese immigrant, said he “would not use her words” and insisted Britain “benefits massively” by welcoming people from around the world.
But Mr Hunt said the UK’s tolerant attitude towards immigrants “depends on fairness”, highlighting an abuse of the immigration system by “criminal gangs smuggling thousands of people over the Channel”.
The chancellor was asked about Ms Braverman’s US visit last month, where she called for an overhaul of the UN Refugee Convention, arguing it had become far too generous to migrants.
The home secretary said fearing persecution for being gay or a woman should not be enough to claim asylum.
She also said multiculturalism has “failed”, claimed uncontrolled immigration was an “existential challenge” for the West and argued that fears of being branded “racist” were preventing leaders from reforming global asylum policy.
At the time, she was accused of indulging in “dog whistle” politics to appeal to the right and bolster her support ahead of a future Conservative leadership race.
A leading Tory London Assembly member, who is patron of the LGBT+ Conservatives group, said: “All this chitter chatter is not government policy – it’s just dog-whistling to a section of people who feel that we are being flooded with gays. It’s just ridiculous.”
The speech sparked a backlash among Tory MPs, including ministers, who complained to the chief whip over her “poisonous” comments.
Ahead of the party’s annual conference on Sunday, Ms Braverman’s predecessor Priti Patel said the speech was an effort to “get attention”.
And on Monday, Mr Hunt distanced himself from the home secretary’s stance.
He told TalkTV: “I am married to an immigrant and I’ve always believed that we benefit massively as a country from welcoming the brightest and best from all over the world.
“Suella Braverman wouldn’t use my words, I wouldn’t use her words.
“But she’s absolutely right that the social contract that makes Britain one of the most tolerant countries in the world when it comes to immigrants depends on fairness.
“And what we’re seeing at the moment with these criminal gangs smuggling thousands of people over the Channel is not fair. It’s an abuse of the way the law works in Britain, it’s an abuse of all the public services that you get free of charge here.
“And she is absolutely right to tackle that because otherwise we will undermine that social contract, and we won’t have that tolerant attitude that we’re so proud of having in this country.”
Foreign secretary James Cleverly also criticised Ms Braverman’s remarks on multiculturalism.
He told Times Radio that the fact that he, Rishi Sunak and the home secretary were from an ethnic minority showed that Britain had been “brilliant at integrating people who have come to this country”.
Mr Cleverly added: “I do sometimes worry that when people say multiculturalism, what they’re talking about is that fragmentation rather than coming together.”
