WORK and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has defended the Prime Minister and said it is “not the British way” to threaten to deport people who are settled here and are working legally.
He said on GB News: “I think some of the protests around this over the last 24 hours are really trying to disguise focusing on the actual policy Reform doesn’t want to defend, because you had two speeches.
“In the last week, you had the Prime Minister’s speech yesterday, setting out his stall here at the conference in Liverpool, and then you had that press conference last Monday where it was completely direct to the public to say that Reform wanted to say to people who’d come here, legally worked here, legally paid taxes here, that they were going to tear up their settled status and threaten to deport them.
“That’s not the British way, to break your word like that. It really matters, and that’s what we’re focused on. And there’ll always be a legitimate debate in this country about migration in one way or another, but to break a word to people who’ve come here legally like that is not the British way, and that’s why the Prime Minister is drawing a line and saying, we would never do that.”
He denied that the Prime Minister was inciting violence against Reform supporters: “No one wants to incite that against anyone. I’m sure if you look through his own statements over the years [Farage], you’d find some pretty big inflammatory ones too.
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“There’s going to be a big debate about the future of the country over the next few years, a really big debate, and it’s going to be an important debate, and people are going to say strong things and we have to focus on which direction that we want the country to go in. That’s not something we’re going to shirk from or walk away from.”
Asked why the PM is picking a fight with Farage now, he said: “A few people have put that to me over the last few days a minute. What I’d say is, if we had ignored this this week, at the conference where we’re here debating for three days, people would be saying, ‘do you guys not know what’s happening out there? Have you not looked at the polls? Have you not looked at who’s ahead in the polls?
“Being ahead in the polls brings with it scrutiny. It brings with it scrutiny of your policy. I know this myself. I was a campaign coordinator for Labour before the general election last year, and they’ll have to expect scrutiny, and they’ll have to expect strong examination.
“And when the policy is wrong, as I believe the policy they announced last week was, then we will take it to task and we will expose it, and it’s our job to do that with our political opponents.
“And I repeat again, there are lots of people who’ve come here legally, worked here legally. They’re doing important jobs in the country. They’ve never done anything wrong and reform or threatened to deport these people. That’s wrong. That’s not the British way to do things.”
He added: “I think if you look at his speech yesterday, there were two words that struck me about it when I was sitting in the hall listening to it. One was a sense of fight back after some difficult stories coming into the conference about resignations and so on earlier in September.
“And the other was this strong belief in Britain about the things that make us great, about the cultural creativity, the community spirit, you know, the things that really make Britain great? And he’s railing against the idea that everything’s broken, nothing works, everything’s terrible.
“And saying, of course there are challenges, and we are addressing them through some of the policies I mentioned a couple of minutes ago. But this is a great country, and we shouldn’t follow people who always tell us Britain’s broken.”
