Michelle Dewberry and Aaron Bastani got into a heated debate on GB News this evening as they discussed Mel Stride's recent comments.
Mel Stride has said the UK riots have shown that white working-class boys feel distanced from society.
Speaking about this on Dewbs and Co, Michelle said: "I don't think there's any justification or excuse or anything for people setting fire to hotels with people in it, you know, attacking places of worship."
She added: "Some people will have chosen to go for Reform because of their policies. Those people then are being smeared as far-right neo-Nazis, fascists and so on.
Michelle Dewberry asked how people can get their message across
GB News
"How do people get that message across and get it listened to and get it respected and crucially, get it acted on? That controlled immigration is the policy that they require in this country and the stopping of the boats."
Bastani responded: "The Tories were punished for failing to live up to the pronouncements that they'd made all the way back to David Cameron in 2010, reducing immigration to tens of thousands.
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"We get net immigration under Priti Patel of 1.3 million over two years. Extraordinary, really. What it would look like if the shoe was on the other foot if you had a left-wing electorate and you repeatedly had a Labour government voted into office and they were promising public ownership, they were saying, we're going to bring rail, mail, water, energy into public ownership.
"And what they did instead for 14 years was just to privatise stuff that would be really bad. That would be an insult to democracy, that would undermine the legitimacy of our system.
"But I don't think any of your viewers or listeners would say that therefore means that all those left-wing people who kept on voting for a Labour Party to bring things into public ownership, that didn't happen.
"I know you're not saying this, but I'm just trying to clarify how silly that rationale is. Therefore they can go and, I don't know, set fire to the hotel."
Aaron Bastani claimed the rational is silly
GB News
Michelle responded: "You are deliberately avoiding my point because I categorically said at the outset that none of those criminal activities are justified or excuse. I said, let me make that clear.
"I'm asking you, so you can't do those things. That is wrong. Everyone agrees that's wrong. You can't get the policy changed democratically because we all agree."
He replied: "I might not agree with Tommy Robinson, but if they want to lawfully assemble and make a point politically, I believe in free speech. I've been doing that around that happen.
"And we talked about that last week. Right. They went on a protest. I think that should be prohibited. I'm just saying that should be open to people. And then ultimately change is going to come about through the political system."
Mel Stride was asked about the underlying causes of the riots
PAIt comes after Stride, who was Rishi Sunak’s work and pensions secretary, was asked about the underlying causes of the riots.
“I think it does throw up deeper issues, some of them around social media and the way that has played into the problems, and the responsibilities of social media platforms,” he said.
“But I think the other thing is about community cohesion and is to a degree actually about poorer, white, working-class males, who I think we need to think much harder about in terms of making sure that we give them the kind of opportunities that society has, that I think many of them feel quite distanced from at the moment.
