Moment BBC Question Time audience turns on Labour minister for 'outrageous' migrant claim - as more small boat migrants make crossing

Daily Mail​

17 hours ago

This is the moment a BBC Question Time audience turned on a Labour minister for 'outrageously' claiming the most small boat migrants are women and children.
More than 14,800 people have arrived in Britain after making the crossing so far in 2025 - making it the worst start to the year on record.
The arrivals continued today, with pictures showing migrants being bussed away from Dover after being intercepted by a Border Force cutter.
The issue was a major topic of debate on last night's Question Time, which hosted several senior politicians including Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Reform UK's Zia Yusuf.
But Mr Jones provoked fury by claiming in front of a live audience that 'the majority of the people in these boats are children, babies and women'.
Following cries of disbelief from members of the public, Mr Yusuf interjected to say that 'more than 90 per cent of them are adult men'.
Home Office figures show 73% per cent of small boat arrivals in 2024 - or 26,999 out of all 36,816 arrivals - were adult males.
Following Mr Yusuf's intervention, host Fiona Bruce turned to Mr Jones and asked: 'You're saying that's not true?'
He replied: 'I'm saying it's not true. I'm saying this is controversial for a reason and you're told you're not supposed to challenge the audience on Question Time, but I'm going to.
'When there are babies and children put into that position by human trafficking gangs, who are coming across the Channel with skin burns from the oil from those boats mixing with the salt sea water, I would ask any of you to look at those babies and children and say 'go back'.
Mr Yusuf hit back: 'In my previous answer, I made the case that this Government prioritises foreign citizens over citizens of the United Kingdom. After that testimony, I can rest my case.
'The vast, vast majority of people making the journey from France by small boat are fighting age, military age, males, not women and children.
'We're talking about asylum hotels, and Rachel Reeves saying we're going to shut down asylum hotels.
'I spent many weeks in the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby. Runcorn is a very deprived area. And do you know the issue that exercised people so much? The reason is primarily because of HMOs – houses of multiple occupancies.
'In an unholy alliance of Serco and Yvette Cooper, illegal migrants are being deposited into communities and there's no say for the local people.'
At her spending review on Wednesday, Rachel Reeves pledged that migrants would be moved out of hotel accommodation by the time of the next general election, due in 2029.
Ms Reeves also promised £1 billion of savings by speeding up the asylum system, along with £280 million investment in future years for the new Border Security Command.
Latest figures show £3.1 billion was spent on housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2023-24, out of a total asylum support bill of £4.7 billion.
More than 30,000 asylum seekers are housed in about 200 hotels across Britain, many of whom arrived illegally in dinghies, and ministers are looking at moving them into derelict tower blocks and student digs.
But despite Ms Reeves' pledge to end the use of hotels, the Tories pointed out that the small print of her Spending Review documents revealed that £2.5 billion will still be spent each year on asylum support by the end of the decade.
It comes as dramatic pictures emerged of French police using tear gas and pepper spray to disperse hundreds of migrants trying to board boats headed for Britain.
Some officers were seen entering the water and dragging them back to shore.
A major point of contention between Britain and France has been the French authorities' refusal to turn back migrants who are already in the water.
Despite officers' efforts, a significant number of migrants were able to successfully cross this morning - with pictures showing them at Dover.
A record five months of the year has brought the provisional arrivals today so far to 14,812 arrivals.
This has also surpassed the highest total recorded for the first six months of the year, which was previously 13,489 on June 30 last year.
In 2024, the number of arrivals did not reach more than 14,000 until July 9 (14,058).
The Government has vowed to crack down on people-smuggling and Channel crossings since coming to power in July last year.
This includes funding elite officers to increase patrols along the northern French coastline and launching a specialist intelligence unit in Dunkirk to track down people smugglers.
It has also established a Border Security Command to lead strategy and its Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently going through Parliament, seeks to introduce new criminal offences and hand counter terror-style powers to law enforcement agencies to target smuggling gangs.
However, critics have repeatedly warned the 'smash the gangs' strategy will not work unless there is a deterrent strong enough to prevent migrants from wanting to make the crossing in the first place.