Rylan Clark has responded to a social media backlash he received after voicing his views on the UK’s immigration policies while hosting This Morning.
The 36-year-old TV personality told his critics you can be “pro immigration and against illegal routes” after he said it was “absolutely insane” that asylum seekers are risking their lives to come to the UK.
“Stop with this putting everyone in a box and maybe have conversations instead of shouting on Twitter,” Clark wrote on Instagram hours after his opinion was condemned online.
“You can be pro immigration and against illegal routes. You can support trans people and have the utmost respect for women. You can be heterosexual and still support gay rights. This list continues.”
Speaking on This Morning on Wednesday (27 August), Clark had noted how doctors and nurses from “other countries” saved his mother Linda’s life when she fell ill earlier this year.
“They’re living a great life, they’re paying into this tax system, they’re helping this country thrive,” he said.
But he added that there is “something wrong” with the way refugees are welcomed. “Here’s the iPad. Here’s the NHS in reception of your hotel. Here’s three meals a day. Here’s a games room in the hotel. Have a lovely time and welcome,” he said.
Rylan continued: “How can it be that if I turn up at Heathrow Airport as a British citizen and I’ve left my passport in Spain, I’ve got to stand at that airport and won’t be let in. But if I arrive on a boat from Calais, I get taken to a four-star hotel?”
Hours after his comments caused debate on social media, Clark urged people to acknowledge a stance can have nuance.
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Good Morning Britain’s Robert Rinder rushed to Clark’s defence, saying he was “proud” of the presenter for making the statement.
Meanwhile, Drag Race star and musician Bimini responded to the statement saying that “nobody is illegal” and they “fully support” immigration and the right to seek asylum.
“I’ll always stand with people forced to cross borders in difficult ways,” they said. “And I believe those conversations should be had with compassion and respect, not fear.”
Clark’s remarks come after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage this week unveiled radical plans for the mass deportation of asylum seekers to address what he claimed was a “rising anger” among the British public towards the UK’s small boats crisis.
At a press conference in London, he claimed the party would remove 600,000 asylum seekers under the first parliament of a Reform government, should they win power.
On Wednesday, Farage insisted at a press conference in Broxburn, West Lothian that he had been “very, very clear” that the party was focused on “illegal males” and “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
Pressed on whether he now meant women and children would be “exempt”, he said: “I didn’t say exempt forever, but at this stage it’s not part of our plan for the next five years.”
Clark rose to fame on the ninth series of The X Factor in 2012. The following year, he appeared on and won the eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother. He has gone on to present various television shows including This Morning, and Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.
