Keir Starmer sparks blistering migration row as PM branded a 'disgrace': 'People have had enough!'

Keir Starmer sparks blistering migration row as PM branded a 'disgrace': 'People have had enough!'

WATCH NOW: GB News panel debate Sir Keir Starmer's approach to tackling illegal migration

GB News
Georgia Pearce

By Georgia Pearce


Published: 29/08/2024

- 08:07

Updated: 29/08/2024

- 08:18

The Prime Minister is in Germany where he has proposed a new treaty to help tackle migration

Sir Keir Starmer has sparked a fresh row on illegal migration after proposing a new treaty with Germany to help tackle the issue.

The Prime Minister met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin where he vowed the new deal is a "once in a generation opportunity" to "deliver for the working people".


However, Starmer has been criticised for attempting to "change the optics" on the issue of migration, using the term "irregular" rather than "illegal" in recent months.

Discussing the Labour leader's visit to Germany on GB News, Director of the Popular Conservatives Mark Littlewood claimed he is "misusing the language" and it suggests migration is "unusual" rather than "illegal".

Keir Starmer, Adam Brooks

Adam Brooks hit out at Sir Keir Starmer for trying to change the rhetoric from 'illegal' migration to 'irregular' migration

PA / GB News

Littlewood said: "He's suggesting that means it's unusual. It's not unusual, it's common and illegal. I've got no problem with the Prime Minister meeting the German Chancellor, they're an important ally.

"But I have not understood anything that has come out of this discussion that's actually going to improve matters. We just heard a whole load of word salad from Keir Starmer."

In defence of the PM, Nina Myskow said using the word "irregular" is "just semantics", and argued that for a long time the term "refugees" has not been used by the mainstream.

Myskow told GB News: "There are illegal migrants, but are they regular migrants? No, so they are irregular migrants. It's just pure semantics.

Keir Starmer

The Prime Minister is in Germany where he has proposed a new treaty to help tackle migration

PA

"Another word we haven't heard for a long time is refugees - they are refugees and nobody can deny their right to find a place of shelter."

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In complete disagreement with Myskow, commentator Adam Brooks argued that the Labour government is a "disgrace" and MPs are "not listening to normal people" on their concerns for migration.

Brooks fumed: "We've got pensioners that could starve or freeze to death this winter because they can't afford to heat their homes or buy food, and you've got people that are simply economic migrants - let's not lie and say these are all refugees and asylum seekers.

"Men are coming over in dinghies. First thing they get put in a hotel, a heated room, and they get fed three times a day. If their teeth are dodgy, they get a dentist. They get to see a doctor. This Labour Government is a disgrace, and the Tories were a disgrace too."

Myskow hit back at Brooks, interjecting: "We're only six weeks into the Labour Government, the number that have arrived this year, the bulk of them came before that, it's nothing to do with this Labour Government."

Panel

Adam Brooks and Nina Myskow descended into a row over the UK's migration crisis

GB News

Brooks then responded: "We have got people that throw their ID and lie from what country they are coming from. I've got one message to say to Keir Starmer and this Government. Normal, everyday people have had enough.

"We're not the far-right, and you need to stop blaming us."

Siding slightly with Myskow, Littlewood concluded that although Starmer has only been in power a short time, he believes Labour is "not going to get to grips" with the problem.

Littlewood said: "It is fair to say that the Government has been in office for under two months, you wouldn't necessarily expect any results yet. But I think over those two months we can therefore only judge them on what they say.

"We wouldn't expect any spectacular results in under two months, but what they've said leaves me rather cold. It doesn't seem to me they're going to get to grips with this problem."

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