Rishi Sunak has been accused of blasting a “giant hard-right foghorn” about refugees fleeing warzones in an attempt to win votes.
Speaking during PMQs, Green MP Caroline Lucas attacked the “toxic” language being used by the government about immigration.
“His government’s vile and immoral refugee ban bill and the toxic language coming from the Home Office isn’t even dog whistle politics,” she said.
“It’s a giant hard-right foghorn blasting out a poisonous them-and-us narrative.”
Lucas called for a bespoke refugee programme to help people escaping the war in Sudan, just as one had been created for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
She said the government had “plumbed new depths” last week when immigration minister Robert Jenrick claimed migrants had “completely different lifestyles and values” to British citizens.
In a speech at the conservative Policy Exchange think-tank, Jenrick added that “excessive, uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion of the British public”.
Lucas asked Sunak: “Can he explain what he thinks is so different about the values held by the people of war-torn Sudan?”
The prime minister said the UK had a “proud history” of welcoming refugees, ut added: “Our ability to do that is absolutely hampered when we have tens of thousands of people illegally crossing the channel every year.”
Sunak’s Illegal Migration Bill would change the law so people who risk the journey over the English Channel are detained and then promptly removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.
The plan to send migrants to the east African nation – a policy ruled lawful by High Court judges – has so far been stalled by legal action and no flights have taken off.
Ministers have been unable to say whether the legislation complies with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Refugee Council and Barnardo’s estimated the Bill could lead to the detention of nearly 15,000 lone migrant children over the next three years.