“They’re just blindly rifling through a bag of dumb cruelty now. Desperate stuff.”
The Tories have been slammed for their latest far-right policy proposal, to exclude any household with a foreign national from any benefit, in what has been called a ‘racist approach to policymaking’.
In an attempt to outdo Reform and whip up a moral panic over foreigners and the welfare bill, Tory MP Matt Vickers appeared on Sky News to set out his party’s latest proposal.
Vickers was asked to explain in detail his party’s policy plans for no benefits to foreigners, to which Vickers replied: “This is about getting rid of some of those pull factors. Why are all those people fleeing France to come to the UK? Because they think life here is paid for and is very simple and easy.”
Asked if the Tories intended to apply their plans to those who have come to the country illegally or to all foreigners, Vickers replied: “It’s for foreigners.”
Vickers then claimed, without evidence, that households with a foreign national in them, were causing the welfare bill to go up. He continued: “We are paying out a £1billion a month in sickness benefits to households with a foreign national.”
Asked if it included foreigners who came to the country legally to work and if they would be excluded, Vickers replied: “Yes.”
The Tory MP then tried to use the small boat crossings as a justification for the policy, but was reminded that there was a difference between those who had come to the country illegally and those who had come legally.
Reacting, one social media user wrote: “So no child benefit for my grandson because his dad married a Dutch woman? Trying to ape Reform has frazzled Tory brains.”
Another wrote: “I know you’re a British citizen who has paid tax your entire life but…
“you should have thought about whether you’d one day get a serious illness before you married a foreigner three decades ago.”
“They’re just blindly rifling through a bag of dumb cruelty now. Desperate stuff.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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