Conservative MP Matt Vickers has launched a fierce attack on Labour after figures revealed that approximately 50,000 people have entered Britain illegally on small boats since the party took power.
The Shadow Home Office minister branded the situation “devastating” during an interview with GB News, pointing to the severe consequences for British taxpayers who must fund the crisis.
Matt Vickers said it is “devastating”
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GB NEWS
These figures brought the total number of arrivals since Labour assumed office to 49,797, according to official statistics.
Vickers told GB News: “It’s devastating, isn’t it? It’s devastating for the taxpayers picking up the tab. It’s devastating for communities across the country, like in Epping, where we’re seeing some horrific incidents.
“And what occurred there, that means that people don’t go out in their own communities and feel safe. They don’t send their children out and their wives and women around in public spaces. And it’s devastating for local economies.
“I went to Altrincham a little while ago. And so what it meant for the local economy when you have 300 hotel rooms in a town, in a small town, and that gets taken over by 300 lone men who hang around the town centre, not only do you have that that concern about those gangs of men in the town centre…those 300 people aren’t turning up every week.
“They aren’t buying things, they aren’t spending in those shops and those restaurants.”
He added: “Kemi has been down there to Epping. She’s been meeting the families who live there, the people who are scared to send their kids out in the public spaces. She’s met the business people. She’s seen what this means first hand for those communities on this scale, 50,000 more.
“Because do you know what? The last government got this wrong in many ways, but they were doing something about it.
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“They were looking at that deterrent. They were reducing the number in hotels. But the reality is, it’s gone up. It hasn’t gone up a little bit. It’s gone up by 51 per cent with Starmer in office.
“That is huge. You can’t integrate people on that scale. And the reality is that these aren’t women and children, they’re largely, very largely, groups of lone men.
“So she said, we should look at all the options on this, firstly, at how we accommodate these people when they’re here, looking at the potential of camps, asking the questions, seeing what the community thinks of that.
“These hotels do have a huge impact. They’re right in the centre of town. They leave groups of young men hanging around town centres and have a huge economic impact.
Recent Home Office data shows the scale of the crisis reaching unprecedented levels
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GETTY“It’s not acceptable. The reality is, though, the only way to solve this problem is for those people to know when they get on that boat that they’ve got no chance of staying.
“We need to remove these people. If you break into this country, you should be detained. You should be removed.
“We need to take away all the pull factors that make these people make the decision to get in those boats.”
