Lee Anderson demands migrants are 'sent to Scottish island' to build their own camps
The Reform UK MP also lashed out at the BBC for its comments about Nigel Farage.
Lee Anderson suggests 'solution' to illegal migrants
Lee Anderson has doubled down on his previous demand that illegal migrants be sent to a “remote Scottish island” and build their own camps.
Speaking to the BBC this lunchtime, the Reform UK MP said: “This is probably going to get me into some sort of hot water again with you lot in the media”.
“I said this to a previous Home Secretary… if some of these migrants do land on the beaches, let’s take them to a remote Scottish island somewhere, Outer Hebrides where nobody lives, give them the building material, let them set their own camps up and I’m sure they’ll be safe and free from persecution in war-torn France”.
The BBC’s Jo Coburn hit back that his policy suggestion was “just inflammatory rhetoric”, shortly after the BBC sparked a bias row after describing Nigel Farage for “inflammatory comments”.
Mr Anderson hit back, insisting: “It’s not inflammatory at all”.
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“The BBC again calling someone inflammatory. This time it’s me”.
He tweeted: “If our government think it's OK to have thousands of young men arrive illegally and then be given housing in our towns and villages then surely my suggestion is fine”.
Asked about Reform UK’s other small boat solutions, Mr Anderson said the answer is simple.
“Turn backs. Push backs. And if the illegal migrants slip through the net and get here to the beaches in Dover and Kent, then just scoop them up, look after them for a few hours and take them back to France.
“It needs political will, it needs courage, it needs strong leadership.
“Nobody in Parliament seems to have that.”
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Jo Coburn replied that Reform UK’s policy has “legal problems”, “if it was that simple it would have happened!”
However Mr Anderson insisted that the French are “actively escorting these boats to the halfway point and passing them over to the RNLI”.
“If people are bothered about our ‘international reputation’ or ‘international laws’, then so be it”.
“There is nobody in Ashfield lying awake at night worrying about international laws or treaties. They want this problem stopped straight away!”
Asked about a potential conflict with France if such a policy of returns were pursued, Mr Anderson said: “It’s the French navy that’s causing this conflict!”
“They should not be escorting these boats to the halfway point in the Channel and dumping them to us. They’ve got a lot to answer for!”
Mr Anderson first came out with his Scottish Island policy in November 2023, adding that he had mentioned such a scheme to Boris Johnson in 2021 “and he smiled at me”.