Top Tory tells asylum seekers to 'f*** off' if they don't like barge

PM backs Lee Anderson in furious row over Tory deputy chair telling asylum seekers refusing to board Bibby Stockholm barge they should ‘f*** off back to France’ – with Cabinet minister saying ‘salty’ language expresses ‘righteous indignation’ of voters

Downing Street today backed the Tory deputy chairman after he told asylum seekers refusing to board the Bibby Stockholm barge they should ‘f*** off back to France’.

Lee Anderson, the outspoken Ashfield MP,  delivered his blast after 20 people declined to get on the vessel in Portland Port, Dorset.

Lawyers claimed some had a ‘severe fear of water’ after traumatic experiences.

‘If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France,’ an irate Mr Anderson said.

But, despite outrage at the comments, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk this morning supported Mr Anderson’s ‘salty’ indignation as ‘well placed’. 

And No10 refused to back away from Mr Chalk’s defence of his Conservative colleague.

‘Alex Chalk was speaking for the Government,’ a No10 spokeswoman told MailOnline.

Lee Anderson, pictured with Rishi Sunak, has told asylum seekers to ‘f*** off back to France’ if they won’t board the Bibby Stockholm

Asylum seekers were warned that they must board the Bibby Stockholm today or have their free accommodation withdrawn

Mr Anderson hit back at criticism of his views and language

Mr Chalk told LBC: ‘Lee Anderson expresses the righteous indignation of the British people.

‘Yes, he does it in salty terms, that’s his style, but his indignation is well placed.’

The Cabinet minister added that France is a safe country and a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights.

‘People should claim asylum in the first country – it’s not like there should be an open shopping list of where you want to go,’ Mr Chalk said.

‘He expresses himself in his characteristically robust terms but there is a lot of sense, in my respectful view, in what Lee says.’

On those complaining about the accommodation on board the Bibby Stockholm, Mr Anderson had told Express.co.uk: ‘If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.’

He added: ‘I think people have just had enough.

‘These people come across the Channel in small boats… if they don’t like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better not come at all in the first place.’

Diane Abbott, Labour’s former shadow home secretary who currently sits as an independent MP, had slammed Mr Anderson’s comments.

‘A new low even for the Tories,’ she posted on Twitter.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael hit out at Cheltenham MP Mr Chalk’s defence of Mr Anderson’s outburst. 

He said: ‘Alex Chalk’s toe-curling interview was yet another sign of how weak this Government has become.

‘Lifelong Conservative voters expect decent and respectful political debate – something completely lacking amongst Tory MPs.

‘People in Cheltenham would have been spitting out their cornflakes listening to Alex Chalk this morning.’ 

Georgie Laming, campaigns director of Hope Not Hate, said: ‘Lee Anderson is deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, right at the heart of his party. They’ve defended his words and it’s morally reprehensible. Words have consequences.

‘Hope not hate has recorded a huge increase in far-right anti-migrant activity. When will the Government recognise their language matters?

‘The Conservative Party is rapidly adopting dangerous and divisive tactics. This has to be challenged.’

In the face of criticism of his comments, Mr Anderson tweeted: ‘Note to the Left. Every illegal migrant that crosses the Channel from France is taking the place of someone genuinely in danger in a refugee camp.

‘Why can’t you see that these fit healthy young men are actually preventing help reaching those desperate people who really need it?’.

READ MORE: Migrants told – Get on the Bibby Stockholm today or be homeless

More asylum seekers are set to arrive on the barge (pictured) over the course of the day 

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Mr Chalk acknowledged it was ‘frustrating’ that just 15 migrants have boarded the 500-capacity Bibby Stockholm barge amid a series of legal challenges.

‘Of course it’s frustrating. It requires a huge amount of time and effort and organisation to procure these alternatives.

‘I think the British people would expect their Government to do that if it is our cheaper alternative… it doesn’t diminish our resolve to solve this,’ he told BBC Breakfast.

It came as asylum seekers were warned that they must board the Bibby Stockholm today or have their free accommodation withdrawn. 15 men spent their first night on the vessel last night – but 20 refused to board.

The group’s transfer onto the barge in Portland Port was ‘cancelled’ on Monday after legal challenges from representatives of Care4Calais claimed the Home Office had not screened them to see if it was suitable.

The charity’s CEO Steve Smith has since revealed that some of the asylum seekers it supported didn’t board the vessel yesterday due to ‘mental health concerns’, some of which arose from being ‘traumatised by seeing their friends drown at sea’.

The legal firm behind the last-minute legal challenges is understood to be London-based Duncan Lewis, which played a key role in challenging the Government’s Rwanda asylum scheme.

However, it is understood that the ‘pre-action letters’ issued by the law firm could lead to the withdrawal of migrants’ free, full-board accommodation. In that event, they would be declared homeless and responsibility for their housing would pass to their local authority.

Men are escorted on to the Bibby Stockholm barge by staff, while a coach was also seen arriving at the port 

People are seen carrying rucksacks and plastic bags as they climb aboard the Bibby Stockholm on Monday afternoon

In total, 15 migrants were transferred to the barge from hotels in Oxford, Bristol, Torbay and Bournemouth, as the Government’s solution to its rocketing £6million-a-day hotel bill for new arrivals was put into action. It will eventually house 500 men aged 18 to 65 as they wait for their asylum applications to be processed.

Ministers confirm Rwanda ‘Plan B’ talks 

Ministers last night confirmed alternative plans are being drawn up in case the Rwanda asylum deal is blocked by the courts.

It came after the Daily Mail revealed yesterday that Channel migrants could be sent to Ascension Island for processing as part of a radical ‘Plan B’.

As a further fall-back, up to five other countries – all believed to be in Africa – are in negotiations to take asylum seekers. Home Office minister Sarah Dines said the Government was examining ‘additional schemes across the globe’.

Former business secretary Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said housing migrants on Ascension, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, was previously ruled out as it would cost £1million a head and was ‘thought to be impossibly expensive to do’.

The £140million Rwanda deal, which involves sending migrants to the east African nation to claim asylum there rather than here, was blocked on human rights grounds by the Court of Appeal in June.

Ms Dines said the Government was ‘confident’ it will be declared lawful, with the Supreme Court due to hear the Home Office’s appeal in October, and a ruling expected six to eight weeks later.

Ascension was first looked at as a possible location for a processing centre in 2021. As it is British soil, it would remove some of the legal difficulties involved in deporting migrants to a foreign state.

But it is understood the plans were abandoned largely due to objections from the US military, which has a presence on the island. A source familiar with the initial negotiations said: ‘The Americans didn’t want people poking around there.

‘You’d be sending migrants… whose affiliations are unclear. You wouldn’t be able to detain them, and they’d be free to roam on the island.’

The 34-square-mile territory has no hospital and moving large numbers of migrants and staff there could overload existing power and water facilities.

At the port campaigners brought flowers and welcome packs containing basic toiletries and other useful items, including a map of the area. But they were not able to give these directly to the migrants and had to leave them with security staff at the port gate. 

Yesterday, new figures showed the number of migrants staying in hotels has hit 50,000, a 25 per cent increase from 40,000 in December, when Rishi Sunak promised to end the placement of asylum seekers in hotels. 

The enormous three-storey barge is the length of a football pitch and has 222 en-suite bedrooms, a gym and a 24-hour canteen. Asylum seekers living onboard will take part in activities including cricket, cycling, tending allotments and going on guided hikes in the Dorset countryside. 

They will also take part in organised ‘cultural events’ and get free buses and taxis to enjoy local towns. Buses every hour from 7am to 11pm will ferry men to Weymouth, a nearby seaside resort with a beach, fishing boat fleet and marina.

If they miss the 11pm bus back to the barge, free taxis are available by phoning a special number. On top of free food, accommodation and transport, each migrant is given £9.58 a week pocket money.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Smith revealed that none of the 20 migrants his charity was supporting had gone to the barge as ‘legal representatives have had their transfers cancelled’.

‘These 20 range from survivors of torture to people who have been beaten, shot at, some arrested, some traumatised by seeing their friends drown at sea and who therefore have a severe fear of water,’ he told The Telegraph.

‘There are therefore mental health concerns and a very worried and very traumatised community. Details of those individuals have been passed to lawyers who have raised challenges about the suitability screening.

‘There appears to have been no suitability screening. I understand that on that basis some removals to the barge have ceased.’

Speaking elsewhere, he added: ‘To house any human being in a ”quasi floating prison” like the Bibby Stockholm is inhumane. 

‘To try and do so with this group of people is unbelievably cruel. Even just receiving the notices is causing them a great deal of anxiety.’

The Stand Up To Racism campaign group said the asylum seekers who avoided transfer to the barge included nine housed in Bournemouth.

A government source said: ‘This just shows what we are up against: Left-wing charities and lawyers are repeatedly trying to stop us from moving illegal migrants out of expensive hotels.

‘Other European countries use barges safely and at lower costs than hotels. Labour need to quit trying to sabotage our plans to stop the boats. It’s time they backed the barge.’

Yesterday, Portland resident Ian Broadhurst got into a heated debate with the Stand Up To Racism campaigners asking why they were giving help to strangers instead of helping poverty-stricken British citizens.

Mr Broadhurst, who does charity work with the local food bank and community fridge, said: ‘This isn’t being racist, this is saying we need to look after ourselves. We cannot afford them here when we can’t even look after our own people.’

Home Office minister Sarah Dines said the vessel – which previously housed oil and gas workers – would provide ‘basic but proper accommodation’ and that those who arrive in the UK by illegal means ‘can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel’.  

She told the BBC on Monday: ‘What it sends is a forceful message that there will be proper accommodation but not luxurious.

‘Luxurious hotel accommodation has been part of the pull, I’m afraid. There have been promises made abroad by the organised criminal gangs and organisations which have tried to get people into the country unlawfully and they say, ”You will be staying in a very nice hotel in the middle of a town in England”.

‘That needs to stop and the barge is just one of a wide range of other measures.’

The Bibby Stockholm received its first asylum seekers on Monday

Fewer migrants than expected arrived on the barge yesterday after last-minute legal challenges

A blue coach was seen arriving at Portland Port on Monday morning as campaigners gathered outside the gates

An aerial view of a blue coach arriving at Portland Port in Dorset on Monday morning

A coach arrives at the front gates and locals welcome the new arrivals with signs and waves

Some of the brown paper bags containing bunches of flowers 

Ms Dines said the barge would be in use ‘imminently’, despite a series of delays, and suggested it could house 500 asylum seekers by the end of the week 

A range of meals will be served from the barge’s canteen. Food is available 24 hours a day, including breakfast and a three-course lunch and dinner

Those on board the controversial barge can make the most of comfortable sofas in the TV room

The vessel’s previous capacity of 222 has been doubled to 500 by putting bunk beds in its cabins and converting some communal rooms into dormitories for four to six men.

Ms Dines said the barge would be in use ‘imminently’, despite a series of delays, and suggested it could house 500 asylum seekers by the end of the week.

She also confirmed ‘all possibilities’ for tackling the migrant crisis are being examined, following reports that the Government is considering reviving plans to fly people who arrive by unauthorised means 4,000 miles to Ascension Island.

While only a small number of migrants are expected to be housed on the barge at first, Ms Dines suggested it could increase rapidly to its capacity of around 500 men.

Pressed on whether all of them could be on board by the end of the week, Ms Dines said: ‘Yes, quite possibly it will be 500. We are hoping.’

But Downing Street appeared to suggest she had misspoken, with the Prime Minister’s spokesman saying that while ‘no limit’ had been set on how many people would board the barge this week, the Government’s plan was to reach the capacity ‘over time’, adding: ‘I don’t think we are aiming to do it by the weekend.’

The Home Office later clarified the total would be reached over a longer period of time and not by the end of the week.

Source: Read Full Article