HOME Secretary Suella Braverman is facing accusations of “homophobic culture war dog-whistling” after she claimed that “many” people were pretending to be gay in order to claim asylum in the UK.
The top Tory’s comments came just one day after she claimed that facing discrimination for being gay or a woman should not be enough to qualify for refugee protection under international law.
In an extremist speech given to a right-wing think tank in the US, Braverman further claimed that multiculturalism has “failed” and blamed “high birth rates among foreign-born mothers” for ailing public services in the UK.
Speaking to ITV’s Peston on Thursday, Braverman said: “What we see operationally is that people do game the system. They come to the UK, they purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment.”
"People purport to be gay when they're not actually gay" Home Secretary @SuellaBraverman accuses asylum seekers of lying about their sexuality to gain refugee status in the UK Full interview with @AnushkaAsthana tonight ⬇️ 💻LIVE 9PM @itvpeston 📺11.15PM @ITV#Peston pic.twitter.com/PvLYPVH3vK
— Peston (@itvpeston) September 27, 2023
Pressed, she added: “I’m afraid we do see many instances where people purport to be gay when they’re not actually gay in order to get special treatment. It’s not the way our asylum system should work.”
Paul Brand, ITV’s UK editor, wrote: “1.5% of asylum claims last year referenced sexuality.
“If every single one of them was bogus and you refused them all, you’d still have to explain the backlog with the other 98.5% of asylum claims.”
Responding, SNP MP John Nicolson wrote: “Ah so the Home Secretary now has a ‘gay test’ to catch those young heterosexual men who are pretending to be homosexual….. Absolute nonsense of course.
“Under 2% of those claiming asylum have done so on the grounds of sexual orientation.
“Homophobic culture war dog-whistling.”
BBC host Gary Lineker, who previously caused a storm after he compared Braverman's language "to that used by Germany in the 30s", also commented.
"How could you possibly know if they are gay or they are not gay?" the football pundit and highest paid BBC star wrote.
Labour MP Chris Bryant wrote: "How many? Where’s your evidence?
"And how dare you scurry behind the apron strings of prejudice to hide the fact that you’ve manifestly failed to deal with the asylum mess you and your party created."
