Braverman’s comments on asylum seekers were shockingly irresponsible

Sadiq Khan was visibly angry during his speech at the annual SME4Labour dinner last night. Discussing the comments made by Suella Braverman about asylum seekers during a statement to parliament yesterday, the London mayor said he was “heartbroken” and “angry” at the language the Home Secretary used, describing it as “divisive and inflammatory”. Braverman spoke of an “invasion on our southern coast”, telling MPs: “Let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress.” The comments themselves are hardly surprising from a Home Secretary who said it was her “dream” and her “obsession” to see a photograph of a flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. But it was the context in which they were spoken – during a statement on the firebomb attack on a migrant processing centre over the weekend and the disgraceful conditions reported at the Manston processing centre – that were especially shocking.

Braverman’s use of the word “invasion” drew praise from former UKIP leader Nigel Farage. But her comments have clearly unnerved some of her government colleagues, with Robert Jenrick – a minister within Braverman’s own department – distancing himself from her words on the broadcast round this morning. The immigration minister told Sky News that he would “never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life”, emphasising: “In a job like mine, you have to choose your words very carefully.” But he tried to offer some justification for Braverman’s choice of words, arguing that “invasion” was a way to describe the “sheer scale of the challenge”.

Also speaking to Sky News, Lucy Powell denounced Braverman’s comments as “deeply irresponsible”, noting that they came just 24 hours after the attack on the asylum seeker processing centre. The irresponsibility of the Home Secretary’s words cannot be exaggerated. By using a word as emotive as “invasion” to describe asylum seekers the day after the attack, Braverman seemingly offered justification for the attackers’ actions, which surely increases the risk of copycat attacks.

The weaponisation of anti-immigration rhetoric by politicians is hardly a new phenomenon, and the use of such inflammatory language at the same time that the government is discussing the “difficult decisions” ahead on tax and spend feels extremely cynical. As Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt reportedly consider plans to impose real-terms pay cuts on public sector workers and raise taxes across the board to cover the £50bn shortfall in the public finances, the Home Secretary has shown how ministers may seek to redirect public anger – scaremongering about asylum seekers to distract from the economic turmoil caused in large part by government mismanagement.

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