Oliver Dowden furiously defended Suella Braverman after the Home Secretary was blasted for making “ludicrous” remarks about the numbers of migrants that could come to the UK. This came after Ms Braverman claimed that “billions” of people are eager to come to the UK. Mr Dowden said the Home Secretary’s point was “perfectly correct”, claiming she was simply making the point that migration numbers are “increasing very, very rapidly”.
Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge raised the Home Secretary’s remarks to Mr Dowden, describing them as “ludicrous”.
Hitting back, Mr Dowden explained: “It is a function of the global economy and differences in levels of development that countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, United States and others, have potentially vast numbers of people who wish to come here as economic migrants.”
Ms Ridge interrupted, questioning: “Billions?”
Mr Dowden responded: “If you’ll let me finish this point – secondly, it is the case that if you look at the numbers, we were at a situation where there were dozens of boats three or four years ago.
“We were at 40,000 Last year, projected to rise further.
“We have to be willing to put a stop to this and there are very, very large numbers of people who could potentially wish to enter the United Kingdom and indeed other developed countries for economic migration reasons.”
When the Sky presenter pressed him on this, saying “Come on, you know, that’s ridiculous. You know that’s ludicrous”, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster accused Ms Ridge of “taking two things slightly out of context here”.
He added: “She’s making the point which is perfectly correct, which is that these numbers are increasing very, very rapidly.”
