A Home Office minister has hit back at those taking part in anti-migration protests across the UK, warning “anger doesn’t get you anywhere”.
While Dame Angela Eagle said that those are worried about migration have an “absolute right” to demonstrate peacefully, she warned: “People don’t have a right to then have a pop at the police, which has been happening in some isolated cases outside hotels.”
It comes amid escalating protests across the UK opposing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, with a number of people arrested after a protest outside a hotel in Canary Wharf in London on Sunday.
Protesters jeered at people going in and out of the hotel, and officers were forced to step in after flares were let off in the crowd, the Metropolitan Police said.
A group of people outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf were “harassing occupants and staff”, trying to prevent people make deliveries, as well as trying to “breach the fencing and access the hotel”, a statement said.
Speaking to Sky News, Dame Angela warned: “One mustn’t mix up people’s genuine concerns and worries peacefully expressed with those who are trying to turn it into violence”.
She said ministers are “doing the detailed work” to bring down the asylum backlog, adding: “We’ve taken 35,000 people off our streets who have no right to be in our country and sent them back to their countries of origin within a year.”
“We are doing all we can to deal with the challenges that the police are facing on the streets to make sure that women and girls are safe, and in fact, that everybody is safe on our streets.”
But asked about people who are expressing their anger over migration, she said: “Anger doesn’t get you anywhere.
“What we have to do is recognise the values we have in this country, the rule of law we have in this country, the work we’re doing with the police to protect people. We will close asylum hotels by the end of the Parliament. We’ll do it faster if we can.”
Robert Jenrick, Tory shadow justice secretary and former immigration minister said he “understands why people are so angry”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The basic problem with illegal migration is we simply know nothing about these people. They’re undocumented, mostly men, who are coming across the Channel in flagrant abuse of our laws and being dumped in communities. I completely understand why people are so angry.”
Mr Jenrick said he thinks the “public’s patience has snapped”.
“This is issue is beyond party politics – it is causing immense harm to communities, people’s lives are being wrecked as a result of it, and we simply have to fix it.
“I respect people who are peacefully protesting outside hotels this weekend. I understand why they feel so concerned. They’re seeing their communities damaged”, he added.
Labour has put a pledge to crack down on the number of people coming to the UK on small boats at the centre of its plan for government.
But with boat crossings at a record high, and the asylum backlog still above 75,000, there is mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action – pressure which is exacerbated by the success of Reform UK in the polls.
Last week figures showed that the number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel topped 25,000 – the earliest point in a calendar year at which the 25,000 mark has been passed since data on Channel crossings was first reported in 2018
On Monday it was announced that the government will pour an extra £100m into efforts to tackle migration as pressure piles on ministers to crack down on small boat crossings.
The money will support the pilot of the new “one in, one out” returns agreement between the UK and France, paying for up to 300 more National Crime Agency (NCA) officers and new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on smuggling gangs.
It comes after a number of other measures to deter migrants from coming to the UK, with a “one in, one out” deal with France agreed last month meaning the UK will for the first time be able to send migrants back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with links to Britain.
Meanwhile, anyone who advertises small boat crossings or fake passports on social media could be face up to five years in prison under a new offence to be introduced under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.
Dame Angela said any social media creators who advertise illegal routes into the UK, whether from overseas or within the UK, will be targeted under the new law.
“This is a crime that, when it goes in the Border Security Bill, will apply to anyone who arrives if they’ve done that, whether they’re abroad or not”, she told Times Radio.
The minister also promised to tighten legal routes for entering the UK if there is evidence they are being misused, such as charity visas.
“It there’s any evidence that legal routes to visas are being misused, then we will tighten up the rules to stop that abuse happening”, Dame Angela said.
