Labour MP torn apart on GB News as furious migrant row | UK News

A major conflict over immigration broke out on GB News as Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin and Labour’s Barry Gardiner butted heads in a heated exchange. It comes as Reform UK’s Nigel Farage and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper both unveiled large plans to deal with the migrant disaster.

Farage announced plans to take away 600,000 migrants within 5 years if elected to energy, whereas Cooper also unveiled sweeping adjustments to Britain’s asylum framework. She announced restrictions on household reunification for refugees and a full restructuring of the appeals course of. On GB News, Reform MP Sarah Pochin backed Farage’s plans, as she said: “Under a Reform Government, they will be deported. Their family will never, ever be invited into this country. And they will never be allowed to ask for asylum here again.”

Mr Gardiner argued back, saying that it still “won’t stop them”. He furiously questioned: “One, what is their crime? That’s the first thing you say ‘they’re all criminals’.

“Yes, but what is their crime? And the second factor is, how does leaving the European Human Rights Convention truly stop people coming right here? It doesn’t.

“You said we will stop them on day one because we will leave the convention. But that’s not going to stop people coming here.”

After a bit of back and forth, the Labour politician then raised the purpose that most asylum seekers go to work once they’re accepted as refugees. But Ms Pochin fumed: “They’re working in the illegal economy.”

Mr Gardiner argued back: “They are illegal, but they’re the people who have not yet been accepted as genuine asylum seekers,” before going on to say: “Very often they’re people waiting to have their case heard. So, you’re absolutely right the appeal system is a problem. It’s one of the things she said we needed to speed up.”

But that was when Ms Pochin questioned the security of rushing up any vetting as she requested: “What does that do for vetting? What does that do to ensure the security of the people coming into this country?”

As the Labour MP tried to skirt around the query, Ms Pochin exploded: “Wake up and smell the coffee! The boatloads of young, fighting-age men coming onto our shores onto our beaches they are not refugees from war-torn areas.

“We will take Afghan interpreters. We will take real refugees. But these boatloads of younger males will not be real refugees. They are financial migrants. They are criminals. They are unlawful.”