Question Time LIVE: Truss ally faces grilling as longest recession in 100 years looms

Suella Braverman’s language surrounding the migrant crisis was widely criticised on Question Time.

Performer George the Poet warned that “the language that is being used such as ‘invasion’ and ‘scurge’ by the Home Secretary, is language that justifies violence against asylum seekers, against refugees.”

In response to the audience member who asked if the asylum system is in crisis, George replied: “The system that continues to drive that migration is broken, but the system that Suella Braverman has been beating her chest about that has been in the hands of Conservatives for 12 years now, so who broke it?”

Labour MP Peter Kyle advocated for a system which is clear and functional, which wil deter people from trying to play the system.

Mr Kyle said: “What supports people to stay at home, is supporting people at home. When people do leave and they travel through multiple countries, what works secondly is working with those countries to support people to stay where they are, or to re-direct and support them and have a very clear pathway forward that is a functional way forward.

“The only thing that deters people from coming across the Channel is knowing that there is a functioning system at the other side and they will be treated fairly and very swiftly and those who do not pass the legal test to remain, are returned rapidly.”

The Labour MP accused the Tories of misunderstanding the difference between taking a tough stance and being “nasty”.

He said: “They don’t understand the difference between being tough and being nasty. What is tough is getting a system that actually works.”

Meanwhile, Tory Peer Lord Stuart Rose accused both Labour and the Conservatives of “playground chat” saying “‘it’s your fault, it’s your fault, it’s your fault”.

He said: “Immigration has been around for thousands of years…there’s always in that migration people who are going to play the system. But we have to be,if we are a caring, rich country…we have to accept it is part of our duty.

“I don’t like the way that we are dealing with it. I don’t like the rhetoric, I don’t like the fact that the Home Secreatry is standing there and goes to Manston today in a Chinook helicopter. What message does that send to everybody? Are we starting a war with these people in Manston?

“How did we allow a person to do that, how could she speak with such dangerous language about a problem? This will only be solved by negotiation.”

Lord Stuart turned to the ‘ironies’ of Brexit, saying that  “having come out of Brexit, we are short of labour, we need these people.

“Many people who voted for Brexit are the people now complaining that they can’t get their apples picked or their cherries picked.

“Lots of able-bodied people ecame to this country every summer, they did heavy work, £75million of fruit and veg rotted in our fields this summer. They did that work at wages that other people wouldn’t do it for…How did we end up in this mess?”