Former football manager Harry Redknapp launched a broadside against Britain’s immigration situation during a TV appearance on Friday, declaring the nation “overrun” with illegal migrants.
The 79-year-old ex-Tottenham, West Ham and Portsmouth boss was reacting alongside presenter Jeremy Kyle to dramatic footage from Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, where approximately 60,000 migrants had crossed the border from Morocco.
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Redknapp was particularly struck by the demographics visible in the images.
“What amazes me when I watch that footage is that they’re all blokes. Are there no women?” he said.
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When asked whether he would flee a war-torn nation without his wife of 59 years, Sandra, the veteran manager insisted he would “absolutely” have brought her along.
The former manager, a long-standing Dorset resident, painted a bleak picture of his adopted hometown. “I live in Bournemouth; Bournemouth town centre is absolutely gone,” he stated.
He recounted how recent visitors had been shocked by what they encountered. “I had some friends come down the other week, and they said they thought we were in a third-world country,” Redknapp added, lamenting the decline along the old Christchurch Road.
Kyle, who is understood to own a property near Highcliffe, readily concurred with the assessment. The presenter remarked that Bournemouth had “completely changed” and described seeing “illegal migrants up and down the street” in the area.
The Roundhouse Hotel in Bournemouth, which has accommodated asylum seekers for a number of years, was previously reported to be due for clearance by October.
The TalkTV broadcast also descended into a fiery confrontation between Kyle and Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine over the question of small boat crossings in the English Channel.
Jardine maintained that those arriving on British shores were “genuine refugees, genuine asylum seekers” who were “fleeing persecution.”
Kyle responded with visible fury, slamming his pen down and clutching his head in exasperation.
“Christine, you’re going to have to let me speak. You have to be able to talk in facts,” he demanded, before referencing the tragic deaths of four migrants during a recent crossing attempt and reading aloud a Home Office statement on the latest arrivals.
The presenter pressed further: “When will we drop this ludicrous belief that these people who cross seven war-torn countries without their wives and kids come to the United Kingdom to apparently work?”
Prime Minister Andy Burnham weighed in on the Ceuta crisis on Friday, describing the mass border crossing as “concerning” and confirming that Britain had offered its assistance to Spain. France’s President Emmanuel Macron similarly extended support to Madrid.
Spanish President Pedro Sánchez addressed the situation in an official press conference, pledging to bolster security forces on the streets of Ceuta and to erect a physical barrier in the sea to aid border enforcement.
He vowed to accelerate repatriation proceedings for those who had entered irregularly and to deepen cooperation with Rabat in tackling people-smuggling networks.
Reports indicated that roughly half of the 60,000 migrants — some 30,000 — had already returned to Morocco voluntarily or been sent back. Under Spanish law, adult Moroccan men face immediate return, whilst minors and women claiming asylum receive legal protection and must be housed in dedicated centres.
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