Ex-Reform MP mistakes rowers for migrants
Take for example ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe, who this week raised the alarm about potential illegal immigrants being spotted off Great Yarmouth. The politician was quick to post a photo from the Norfolk coast to social media to rage that:
Dinghies coming into Great Yarmouth, RIGHT NOW. Authorities alerted and I am urgently chasing. If these are illegal migrants, I will be using every tool at my disposal to ensure these individuals are deported. Enough is enough. Britain needs mass deportations. NOW.
Strong stuff! The independent MP was quick to get in touch with the coastguard who probed the matter further. Only it transpires that Lowe was mistaken – with the boat's occupants in fact rowing for charity. The image Lowe shared depicted an ocean rowing boat crewed by ROW4MND – a four-person team attempting to row from Land's End in Cornwall to John o'Groats in Scotland to raise money for motor neurone disease. Not quite the threat Lowe had anticipated…
In a rather amusing series of events, the crew were first contacted to ask whether they could see a dinghy nearby. In a later call, they said the police had requested to send a lifeboat out 'to check who we were'. After a long period of confusion, one of them received a link to Lowe's tweet – which shed light on the rather baffling episode. Mike Bates, a former Royal Marine and British record holder for rowing across the Atlantic solo, remarked:
We found it hilarious. I've not been mistaken for a migrant before. The best comment was the one asking where the Royal Navy was when you need them. I'm a former Royal Marine, so the Royal Navy were on the boat.
All's well that end's well, eh?
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