Rupert Lowe mistakes charity rowers for 'illegal migrants'
Mr Lowe posted about the boat at about 20:25 BST and said he had alerted the authorities. He added that if the people on board were illegal migrants he would be "using every tool" to ensure they were deported. However, at 06:38 on Friday, he explained the "unknown vessel" was a false alarm. He said: "We received a huge number of urgent complaints from constituents - I make no apologies over being vigilant for my constituents. It is a national crisis."No mass deportations for the charity rowers, but we definitely need it for the illegal immigrants!"
The crew of four, which included Mike Bates who is a British record holder for rowing across the Atlantic solo, said they found the post "hilarious". Mr Bates, said: "I looked to my right and there was maybe a dozen individuals stood on the shoreline staring at us."I've not been mistaken for a migrant before."The best comment was the one asking where the Royal Navy were when you need them. I'm a former Royal Marine, so the Royal Navy were on the boat." Mr Bates said it was "almost vigilante-style" how people followed them down the beach. The team of four had set off from Land's End on 25 July headed north into the Irish Sea before bad weather forced them to stop at Milford Haven in Wales. So far the team have raised more than £100,000 for charity and hope to raise even more. "We're rowing for hope, we're rowing to find a cure, and hopefully we'll raised £57m - we certainly will is MPs keep talking about us," he said.
Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
13 minutes ago
- Reuters
US spy chief Gabbard says UK agreed to drop 'backdoor' mandate for Apple
WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday the UK had agreed to drop its mandate for iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab to provide a "backdoor" that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens. Gabbard issued the statement on X, opens new tab, saying she had worked for months with Britain, along with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to arrive at a deal. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was in Washington on Monday along with other European leaders to meet Trump and discuss Russia's war in Ukraine. The UK government and Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Gabbard's statement. U.S. lawmakers said in May that the UK's order to Apple to create a backdoor to its encrypted user data could be exploited by cybercriminals and authoritarian governments. Apple, which has said it would never build such access into its encrypted services or devices, had challenged the order at the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). The iPhone maker withdrew its Advanced Data Protection feature for UK users in February following the UK order. Users of Apple's iPhones, Macs and other devices can enable the feature to ensure that only they — and not even Apple — can unlock data stored on its cloud. U.S. officials said earlier this year they were examining whether the UK broke a bilateral agreement by demanding that Apple build a backdoor allowing the British government to access backups of data in the company's encrypted cloud storage systems. In a letter dated February 25 to U.S. lawmakers, Gabbard said the U.S. was examining whether the UK government had violated the CLOUD Act, which bars it from issuing demands for the data of U.S. citizens and vice versa. Cybersecurity experts told Reuters that if Apple chose to build a backdoor for a government, that backdoor would eventually be found and exploited by hackers. Apple has sparred with regulators over encryption as far back as 2016 when the U.S. government tried to compel it to build a tool to unlock the iPhone of a suspected extremist.
Reuters
43 minutes ago
- Reuters
US spy chief Gabbard says UK agreed to drop 'back door' mandate for Apple
WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Monday the UK had agreed to drop its mandate for iPhone maker Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab to provide a "back door" that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens. Gabbard issued the statement on X, saying she had worked for months with Britain, along with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to arrive at a deal. U.S. lawmakers said in May that the UK's order to Apple to create a backdoor to its encrypted user data could be exploited by cybercriminals and authoritarian governments. Apple, which has said it would never build a so-called back door into its encrypted services or devices, had challenged the order at the UK's Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT). The iPhone maker withdrew its Advanced Data Protection feature for UK users in February following the UK order. Users of Apple's iPhones, Macs and other devices can enable the feature to ensure that only they — and not even Apple — can unlock data stored on its cloud.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
How far-right rhetoric on migration went mainstream
This summer, as Nosheen Iqbal observes, politicians seem to have started saying things about refugees and migrants that would have been unsayable a decade ago. Whether it is the shadow justice secretary, Robert Jenrick, writing that he would not want his daughters living near 'men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally', or Reform MPs claiming women in the UK are at risk of being assaulted by men from 'predominantly Muslim countries', something seems to have shifted in the way politicians talk about asylum and migration. Dr Maya Goodfellow analyses this worrying trend in British politics that goes all the way up to the government, with politicians frequently adopting the language of the far right, and identifying asylum seekers as criminal and a threat to young women and girls.
