Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has said Andy Burnham’s comments that migrants will have to be housed in middle-class parts of the country are “a sad admission of failure” that he can’t stop the boats.
Speaking on GB News, he said: “So the Prime Minister is going to move illegal migrants into middle-class areas. In an exclusive interview with GB News, this is what he had to say.
“It’s obviously going to be challenging, but I am prepared, always, to listen to people, to work with people, and to pick up legitimate concerns. And I will address those concerns.
“I do have to say, we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers. I do believe all parts of the country need to work to play their part. It’s a challenging issue. We’re working at it, we understand people’s concerns.’
“Well, as you may have seen from the clip of me at Winford Manor, some of the places in the country that have migrants are pretty well-heeled. Properties in that part of the world go for about three quarters of a million pounds or more. So this idea they’re only in poor areas isn’t true.
“And what he had to say about the whole country having to share the pain is an utter failure of policy, a failure of ambition, a failure of drive. It’s the problem with having a prime minister coming into office who had no plan beforehand.
“It’s the problem of spending your life conspiring against your previous leader, rather than knowing what you want to do if you get power.
“Because it’s not about shuffling people around. It’s not about saying that they must go in posh areas or poor areas or middle areas. It’s about stopping the boats. And we know how to stop the boats.
“There was a plan that the Conservatives had, which failed because we were still in the European Convention on Human Rights. If we are serious about it, we need to leave the Convention and the Refugee Convention.
“We need to repeal the Human Rights Act, and we need to have a scheme like Rwanda that will act as a deterrent. It will stop the boats. Everything else that has been tried has failed.
“Giving lots and lots of money to the French has failed. Trying to stop small boats has meant that they’ve gone and got big boats instead. This is not the way to prevent illegal migrants coming.
“And it is such a sad admission of failure to say that what you need to do is inflict pain on more of the country. What sort of a prime minister is it who says, ‘Well, I can’t solve the problem. I’ll just make you all equally uncomfortable.’ It’s utter socialism, isn’t it?
“Everybody must suffer because the government is incompetent, is unable to govern, is unable to do what is necessary, which is to stop the boats.
“And as I pointed out, it’s already happening. Winford Manor is in Somerset. Somerset is the most civilised part of the country. If it’s already got migrant hotels, nowhere is safe now and so his policy change won’t make any difference, and it certainly won’t stop the boats coming over.”
