RISHI Sunak has prompted outrage after he said that migrants will be used as a “weapon” to “overwhelm” European societies during a speech to hard-right Conservatives in Italy.
The UK Prime Minister told a gathering of members of the Brothers of Italy in Rome that “our enemies” will use migration to “deliberately drive” people to the UK and elsewhere to “destabilize” Western societies.
He told members of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party that changes to global refugee roles might be needed.
The comments prompted a furious backlash from many who criticised Sunak’s use of inflammatory language.
In October, former home secretary Suella Braverman drew criticism after she warned that a “hurricane” of mass migration is coming.
During his speech, Sunak said: “Our enemies will see that we are unable to deal with this and they will so increasingly use migration as a weapon deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilize our societies.
“If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most.
“The cost of accommodating these people will anger our citizens, who won’t understand why their money should have to be spent on dealing with the consequences of this evil trade.
“It will destroy the public’s faith, not just in us as politicians, but in our very systems of Government.”
Alison Thewliss, SNP MP for Glasgow Central, hit back at the comments. She said: "There's only one person being a weapon here, and it's Rishi Sunak.
“The people I've listened to at surgeries coming to the UK aren't part of a wild conspiracy; they're fleeing war, persecution, torture and just want a safe place to rebuild their lives.”
Meanwhile, Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he believed the speech was a “stunning admission of failure” by the PM.
“This is the guy who says, ‘One of my priorities is to stop the boats, I’m doing a really great job’, and then the next minute he’s off to Italy to say the quiet bit out loud to all of his right-wing chums from across Europe, which is that he’s failed,” Streeting told the BBC.
A number of social media users pointed out that Sunak is the child of economic migrants to the UK and suggested he was using immigration as a flashpoint ahead of an upcoming General Election.
One user wrote: “As the devastating defeat in the next UK election draws closer for the Tories, they'll continue to descend at being more far-right on immigration.
“But its ridiculousness is only magnified by a PM whose mother is Tanzanian and father is Kenyan, both of Indian Punjabi descent.”
Another added: “Just a reminder that he's the son of economic migrants. His audience will contain quite a few right-wing nutters who - egged on by his dog-whistle rhetoric - may well tell him to go back where he came from, as is their wont. He just can't see this. What a repellent twit.”
Another suggested the language Sunak used was that of the “BNP and, dare I say it, the Nazi party”.
Appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Oliver Dowden (above) defended the Prime Minister’s comments.
He said: “I think the Prime Minister is absolutely right to issue this warning, and indeed it’s not just a warning, it’s something that we have seen elsewhere – we have seen the weaponisation of migration, for example, in the conduct of Belarus in relation to Poland, there’s been warnings from Finland in respect of the conduct of Russia.
“There’s a broader point here, which is that we do have to reassure people that we have got control of our borders and we cannot have this unsustainable situation where we’re enriching people smugglers – the worst people on the earth.”
Philipps raised the use of “extreme” language by Sunak during the speech, but Dowden backed his party leader's position.
