“It’s either dog-whistle or it’s so vague it’s meaningless,” one Tory MP said
Having seen herself as a ‘rising star’ and referred to as a ‘future Tory leader’, Tory MP Katie Lam probably thought the only way was up, yet her own MPs have brought her crashing down to reality.
Lam, who hit the headlines earlier this week after she said that large numbers of legally settled families must be deported, in order to ensure the UK is mostly “culturally coherent”, has been widely condemned for her comments.
Not only are the comments utterly disgraceful, showing how far the Conservative Party has fallen but also demonstrate how the Tory party are far from being a party of law and order and how it now normalises the rhetoric of the far-right.
Lam made the comments during an interview with the Sunday Times, where she said she believed large numbers of people with legal status in the UK would need to have their right to stay revoked and should “go home”.
She said: “There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn’t have been able to do so.
“They will also need to go home. What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people.”
Now it’s being reported that a number of her own colleagues have complained to the party whips over her comments.
“It’s either dog-whistle or it’s so vague it’s meaningless,” one Tory MP said
The Guardian reports: “Her remarks have triggered alarm among Tory MPs. “If we are using phrases like that, we need to explain what they mean,” one said. “‘Culturally coherent’: it’s either dog-whistle or it’s so vague it’s meaningless.
“‘Go home’ is a chant used by people who are bigoted or racist – so we have to be very careful when using phrases like ‘go home’, when talking in particular about legal migration. Politicians, especially ones who aspire to be in leadership frontline roles, should use language that is appropriate.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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