Robert Jenrick has launched a scathing attack on Andy Burnham’s silence on Britain’s migrant crisis, branding him “open borders Andy”.
Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK Treasury Spokesman hit out at the Prime Minister’s failure to mention the crisis in his first week in Downing Street.
Discussing the ongoing crisis, Mr Jenrick told GB News that the situation in the Channel has become a “national security emergency”.
He said: “It’s open borders, Andy, isn’t it? How can it be that almost a week has passed since he became our Prime Minister, and he’s not mentioned immigration, the small boats crisis once.
“To the best of my knowledge, the words have not even passed his lips, despite the fact that this is the number one or number two issue for most people in this country.”
Mr Jenrick noted that this week has been a “terrible period” for Channel crossings, including the first “mega dinghy” to arrive in Britain and an alleged serious incident on a beach in France.
He explained: “As it happens, the last week has been a terrible period for small boat arrivals, hundreds and hundreds of people have come in.
“The small boats crisis now seems to have ended and been replaced by the big boats crisis, because you’ve got these giant vessels almost like the ones that cross the Mediterranean, in which 165 on one boat have come across.”
Mr Jenrick continued: “And we’ve had this very, very disturbing incident whereby there was a stabbing on the beach in France, and it is alleged that the murderers got into a small boat, came over to the UK, and it’s not clear that the Home Office or the police know where they are.
“So that suggests that whatever checks there are at Dover are hopelessly inadequate.”
The Reform MP also pointed to another revelation this week, which revealed that Iran has been sending agents across to Britain in the small boats.
He told GB News: “In fact, these people seem to just waltz into the country, have disappeared, or are living in a hotel or an HMO on a street near you.
And that comes on top of the other scandal we’ve learnt this week, which is the suggestion that Iran is smuggling in its agents via small boats, something that Nigel Farage and I have both been raising for a very long time.
“The Home Office actually wrote to me saying ‘stop saying this because it’s it’s top secret, you shouldn’t be talking about this’. Well, I’m not going to stop talking about it.”
Mr Jenrick criticised Andy Burnham for not treating the small boats crisis as seriously as it should be.
He made clear: “The truth is, the small boats crisis is a national security emergency and it should be treated as such.
“And Andy Burnham, if he’s worthy of the term Prime Minister, leader of our country, should be giving this the attention that it deserves.”
The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirmed it was aware of the incident.
A spokesman said: “We are aware of an incident on Thursday, July 23, in which an individual died in French waters.
“French partners are leading the investigation into the circumstances.”
