A Tory MP has compared Rishi Sunak’s government to the ‘Titanic Group’ during a WhatsApp discussion among colleagues about the government’s response to the migrant crisis. Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield, accused Mr Sunak of “rushing into a crisis”, also suggesting that officials who seek to block attempts to tackle the crisis are committing “treason”.
In messages sent to the Common Sense group of MPs on Whatsapp, seen by Sky News, Mr Anderson warned that the Prime Minister’s new legislation to tackle the problem “will not stop crossings”.
He added: “I learned that in Calais last week. We are sinking into a crisis that is spiraling out of control.”
Mr Anderson Reportedly Said
Mr Anderson reportedly said the only way to deal with the problem is to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, a plan originally proposed by Boris Johnson.
The deputy said: “We could start these flights today if we had the balls. »
When a colleague remarked that “legislation is coming”, fellow Tory MP Marco Longhi weighed in on the matter, saying: “I don’t want to shoot the messenger.
“But we have had laws before. The ECHR (the European Convention on Human Rights, which could block flights) trumps everything and our own colleagues want to keep it even if it poses a risk to the safety of British citizens, as we have just seen .
The MP for Dudley North warned: “We will be slaughtered at the local elections and at the GE (general election)”.
Mr. Anderson replied: “It’s like the group on the Titanic. Playing the same tune and ignoring the obvious. »’
On reports that officials may try to block plans to bar illegal migrants from seeking asylum, Mr Anderson replied: “Going against the state is treason. Surely. »
Mr Sunak announced a series of new policies to tackle migration in a statement to MPs in early December.
Speaking to MPs in December, Mr Sunak outlined a five-point plan to tackle illegal immigration and speed up the assessment of applications from countries deemed “safe”.
This plan provides in particular for “significantly” raising the threshold from which a person can be considered a victim of human trafficking and for processing applications from Albanian nationals in “a few weeks instead of a few months”.
He said illegal immigration is “unfair to Britons who play by the rules”.
The Prime Minister said “enough is enough”, adding: “It is not cruel or evil to want to break the grip of criminal gangs who trade in human misery and who exploit our system and our laws. »
The latest set of migration figures, released in November last year, show net migration increased to 504,000 in the year ending June 2022.
Net migration for the year ending June 2015 – the year before the UK voted to leave the EU – was 336,000.
The new net migration figure represents an increase of 331,000 in a single year.
Refugee charities have criticized the government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda, with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants calling it “unspeakably cruel”.
The Joint Council for Welfare Immigrants called the plan “barbaric and racist” and warned it would cause “unspeakable harm” to refugees.
This article is originally published on encause.fr
