A BBC Question Time audience member has won praise for his monologue on why the Tory government is pursuing a policy of “division”.
It came after Rishi Sunak announced plans to permanently bar asylum seekers who arrive in the UK on unauthorised small boats.
Home secretary Suella Braverman unveiled new legislation this week that is key to the prime minister’s priority of “stopping the boats” crossing the Channel.
The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it was “profoundly concerned” by the plans and said they would amount to an “asylum ban”.
On the flagship BBC politics show, which this week came from London, immigration minister Robert Jenrick defended the plan as “legal, fair and moral”.
But one audience member took umbrage at the position, arguing the move is “illegal, impractical and inhumane”.
As Jenrick listened on, the audience member added: “It’s actually not about whether it’s going to work or not, because as stupid as Suella Braverman does sound when she uses words like ‘blob’ or ‘wokerati’ or whatever nonsense she wants to spout, that’s not what they’re trying to do.
“This isn’t even about the actual scheme itself. They’re forecasting to the next election. They can’t run on their governing record, there’s sewage in the rivers, inflation is through the roof, living standards are beyond the floor.
“They can’t run on individuals or personalities. They have ex-chancellors who don’t pay tax. They have another ex-chancellor who knew the currency was going to run, so he told his former employers to bet against it.
“So what do they have left? What they have left is division and this is all this policy is about. They are trying to sow division by casting it as us, the people in Britain, against people who want to come here. And it’s really sad.
“I have faith that people are not are not going to buy it ... this also just fundamentally betrays that the conservatives don’t think the way that we do because we think compassionately.”
Sunak has staked his premiership on curbing Channel crossings, among four other priorities, in the face of pressure to tackle the issue amid dire polling figures for the Tories and has insisted changing the law is crucial.
In 2022, a record 45,755 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel.
More than 3,000 have made the journey so far this year.
Home Office figures show 197 made the crossing on Monday – the first arrivals since February 24 – taking the total to date to 3,150.