Andy Burnham has been torn apart by a top Tory MP after calling on “wealthy areas” of Britain to house “more migrants” in a bid to tackle the crisis.
Speaking to GB News, Mark Francois hit out at the Prime Minister’s comments, declaring he has “absolutely no plan” to stop small boat crossings in the Channel.
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In an exclusive interview with GB News, Mr Burnham admitted that the Government “can’t commit” to stopping the migrant crisis by 2029.
He told Christopher Hope: “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.
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“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.”
Asked by host Ellie Costello on whether he agrees with Mr Burnham’s remarks, Mr Francois told GB News: “No I don’t. We had a place called the Chichester Hotel in my constituency that was completely unsuitable for cross Channel migrants.
“I managed, under the previous Government, to get that hotel closed within three months of its opening, so I’ve got to be consistent and having done that, no, I don’t want to see another facility like that in my community, and I’m sure most other MPs don’t either.”
The Tory MP stressed that the “fundamental issue” the Labour Government must tackle is “stopping the boats from coming in the first place”.
He said: “And here’s the question Andy Burnham never wants to answer, you will never stop the boats coming while we remain in the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Now my party, after much debate over the years, has finally come out under Kemi and said we would leave the ECHR.
“But this Government will not say that. Most Labour MPs are very, very obsessed with human rights.
“They will never vote to leave the ECHR. All the traffickers know this and therefore the boats will keep coming.”
Mr Francois noted the Rwanda scheme which was brought in under the Tories, and how it was “more of a plan than Labour’s got now”.
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He told GB News: “We had a plan to address this, it was the Rwanda plan. Some people liked it, some people didn’t. But it’s one more plan than Labour have got.
“And so Andy Burnham goes to the South Coast and he’s photographed staring very seriously at a captured boat and saying he’ll do his best – he’s got absolutely no plan to stop these boats and the whole of the country can see it.”
Speaking to GB News, Mr Burnham claimed it would be wrong to say Channel crossings would end by 2029.
He said: “It would be wrong, I think, for me to make a prediction now based on a timeline.
“I mean, I just can only promise to people what I know I can do and what I know I can deliver.
“And that is a relentless focus on this issue to deal with the public concern.
“I heard it on doorstep after doorstep in Makerfield, and I said to the people there and I say it to the country ‘I hear what you say’.
“I will be completely focused on the issue. There are more measures that we’re bringing through, but crossings are down, immigration is down. There is real progress to report.”
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