Suella Braverman compares migrant crisis to ‘invasion’ as she denies ignoring legal advice

Home Secretary Suella Braverman speaks in the House of Commons (PA)

Suella Braverman compared small boat crossings to an “invasion” as she denied ignoring legal advice over housing migrants crossing the Channel.

Speaking in response to questions in the House of Commons amid concerns about conditions at the Manston processing site in Kent, Ms Braverman described the deeping Channel crossings as an “invasion on our south coast”.

She said: “The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not.

“Let’s stop pretending they are all refugees in distress”.

A watchdog has described ‘wretched’ conditions at the Manston migrant processing centre in Kent, which he warned is already past the point of being unsafe (PA Wire)

The escalation of rhetoric came a day after the separate Western Jet Foil migrant facility in Dover was fire-bombed by a suspect who was later found deceased.

Ms Braverman, who earlier admitted using her personal email to send Government documents on six occasions, denied blocking the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

She told the Commons that she foresaw problems at Manston and had deployed extra resources in September. A watchdog has described conditions at the severely overcrowded short-stay facility in Ramsgate as “alarming” and “wretched”.

“To be clear, like the majority of the British people I am very concerned about hotels but I have never blocked their usage,” she said.

“Indeed since I took over 12,000 people have arrived, 9,500 people have been transferred out of Manston or Western Jet Foil, many of them into hotels.

“And I have never ignored legal advice, as a former attorney general I know the importance of taking legal advice into account.”

Questioned by Labour’s Rachael Maskell on the “inhumane” conditions about Manston, Ms Braverman said “inflammatory language” should not be used to avoided.

Ms Braverman claimed that “some 40,000 people” have crossed the Channel this year, calling it “a global migration crisis” and “unprecedented”.

Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said decision-making for cases of migrants has “collapsed”, telling MPs 96% of the small boat arrivals last year have still not had a decision, and initial decisions alone are taking more than 400 days.

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She accused the Government of a “total failure” to stop the proliferation of criminal gangs linked to small boat crossings.

Speaking about the fire attack at Western Jet Foil on Sunday, Ms Braverman described it as “a shocking incident”, but said “investigators must have the necessary space” to carry out their investigations.

Ms Cooper asked whether counter-terror police and counter-extremism units are involved in the investigation into the incident, noting: “It doesn’t make sense for them not to be, why are the not?”

Ms Braverman declined to comment on specifics in relation to the attack.

The Home Secretary is further facing pressure after the revelation Monday that she used her personal email to send Government documents six times.

Responding to a reference made to that fact by MP Chris Bryant, Ms Braverman suggested there was a “political witch hunt” which ignored Government action on the asylum backlog.