“You’re talking to the grandchild of an Irish migrant, we built the country.”
John McDonnell schooled Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice on his false claim that refugees are “economic migrants”.
McDonnell praised Labour for speeding up the processing of asylum claims, stating that it gives refugees the opportunity to work and contribute.
At the Spending Review yesterday, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said that Labour will end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament.
Commenting on refugees’ many skills, McDonnell said: “What I’m amazed at is the range of skills, the range of skills is unbelievable at all levels.”
He added: “There is a good government argument that if you can get the processing done properly and get people into work in local communities, I think there is a real chance you can reduce the need for that sort of accommodation.”
When Robert Peston asked Tice whether Labour was “shooting Reform’s fox” by addressing issues in the asylum system, Tice doubled down on his fearmongering, claiming: “I think John has just admitted what many people are worried about which is that basically 80-90% of all asylum applications are going to be granted.”
The Reform deputy leader described this as “a form of amnesty”, despite the fact that asylum applications are assessed through a formal process to determine whether individuals meet the criteria for refugee status.
McDonnell challenged Tice on this: “That’s because they’re refugees, no they’re accepted as refugees that’s what the status means.”
Tice continued: “No they’ve come here illegally, broken the law.”
McDonnell hit back: “It means they’re accepted under international law as refugees!”.
Tice went on to repeat another false claim: “They come here illegally, primarily as economic migrants.”
McDonnell reminded Tice that if they were ‘economic migrants’, “They won’t get status!”.
Peston added: “John is right on this, they wouldn’t get status if they were purely economic migrants.”
Tice asked why they are being accepted, to which McDonnell said: “Come and meet some of them, they’re from Syria, war zones all over.”
The Reform deputy leader claimed some of them are from Albania, India, Turkey and Bangladesh, which are not war zones. He then said that if refugees are accepted, they go into British housing and “we’ve got a housing shortage”.
He claimed that this then creates “a huge magnet where the word goes out that the British are soft on ‘illegal’ asylum seekers.”
McDonnell said that when they’re accepted, “They’ll go in and work and make a huge contribution to the British economy.”
He then added: “You’re talking to the grandchild of an Irish migrant, we built the country. We built the roads, we started the NHS.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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