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Lee Anderson has refused to apologise for saying asylum seekers who don’t want to be housed on barges should “f*** off back to France”.

But the Conservative deputy chairman also said there was “no doubt” the government had failed to tackle illegal immigration.

The Tory MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire made the remark about asylum seekers after it emerged about 20 of them were granted a last-minute reprieve from boarding the Bibby Stockholm accommodation vessel on Monday.

The charity Care4Calais said their transfers from hotels were “cancelled” after lawyers challenged the decision to move them on to the barge moored off the Dorset coast.

Labour labels barge a ‘floating failure’ – politics latest

Asked by Nigel Farage on his GB News show on Tuesday evening whether he will be apologising for the words he used, Mr Anderson said: “No.”

When questioned by the former Brexit campaigner about whether his use of the “f-word” was in bad taste, Mr Anderson replied: “No… it’s borne out of frustration.

“It’s borne out of me being absolutely furious. It’s not just me that’s being furious, it’s my constituents and millions of people up and down the country.”

A general view of the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge at Portland Port in Dorset, which will house up to 500 Asylum seekers. Picture date: Tuesday August 8, 2023.
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A general view of the Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge which is set to house up to 500 asylum seekers

And when asked if the Conservative government had failed to tackle illegal immigration effectively, Mr Anderson said: “We have failed on this, there’s no doubt about it.

“We said we’re going to fix it, it is a failure. But we have got policies in place – I know it’s a bit hard for the British public at the moment to understand what we’re trying to do with the Rwanda flights, and the change in legislation, the Illegal Migration Bill.

“It seems very slow and cumbersome – we’re up against it, we’ve got the lefty lawyers, the human rights campaigners, we’ve got the charities, everything’s against us.

“I’m not making excuses, but it’s slowing us down. If we had the whole of parliament behind us I’m sure this would have got through by now.”

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Barge reminds migrant of Islamic State

Mr Anderson added it makes him feel “sick” every time a boat carrying migrants crosses the Channel and it makes him “furious” when asylum seekers are housed in hotels and on barges.

He said: “I’ve been to Calais, I’ve seen these migrants living in one-man tents, living in absolute squalor.

“Then they get here, we do our best, we bend over backwards to put them in decent accommodation, and all of a sudden they get a choice.”

The government hopes the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge and former military bases to house asylum seekers will reduce the cost of hotel bills.

Home Office minister Sarah Dines said those arriving in the country via unauthorised means should have “basic but proper accommodation” and that they “can’t expect to stay in a four-star hotel”.

She claimed hotels were part of the “pull” factor attracting people to the UK.

Mr Anderson said “grafters” in the oil industry who are “doing a job for this great country of ours” live on barges and “never complain once”.

He continued: “It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach when these lefty lawyers, the charities, the human rights campaigners, say it’s not good enough.

“If it’s not good enough, [the asylum seekers] should go back to France.”

Read More:
Tories ‘deflecting from own failures’ with attack on ‘Labour-linked’ immigration lawyers
Asylum backlog: Government must triple activity to meet target

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The director of asylum accommodation at the Home Office, Cheryl Avery, speaks to Sky News.

What were Anderson’s initial remarks?

The Tory deputy chairman had sparked controversy when he told Express.co.uk: “If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.”

He added: “I think people have just had enough.

“These people come across the Channel in small boats… if they don’t like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better not come at all in the first place.”

Downing Street defended his use of the “f-word” when speaking about asylum seekers.

When asked if this view represented the government, Number 10 pointed to comments made by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, who said the “indignation” of Mr Anderson was well placed.

“The justice secretary was speaking on behalf of the government. That is the response,” the spokesperson told Sky News.

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Angela Rayner: ‘Victim of misogyny’ or ‘freeloading’ deputy prime minister?

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Angela Rayner: 'Victim of misogyny' or 'freeloading' deputy prime minister?

To her most savage critics – from Tories to the far left – she’s “Rotten Rayner”, a tax evader, freeloader and a “low life… on the make”.

To her trade union friends, she’s a victim of misogyny who right-wing politicians are attempting to hound out because she’s working class.

And after her tearful interview on Sky News, even among some of her political opponents there’s a degree of sympathy for Angela Rayner too.

Politics latest: Why the deputy PM nearly resigned

But amid the rancorous debate among MPs about whether she should stay or go, there’s one part of her defence that is attracting scepticism from friends and foes.

That’s her claim that she was initially given duff advice by a solicitor. Really? If she has evidence to substantiate that, she may be in the clear, though there’d no doubt be accusations of an establishment stitch-up.

But if not – and the city grandee who’s the PM’s ethics adviser – the Eton and Oxford-educated baronet Sir Laurie Magnus – rejects her defence, she’ll almost certainly have to go.

And with her resignation – or sacking – would almost certainly go her hopes of succeeding the increasingly unpopular Sir Keir as Labour leader, despite her popularity with the party’s activists.

When she arrived for Prime Minister’s Questions, just half an hour after her bombshell confession, the Labour high command placed a collective arm around her.

Sir Keir Starmer, who told MPs he was proud to sit alongside a deputy PM from a working-class background, put his hand on her left shoulder.

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Beth Rigby on Angela Rayner’s uncertain future

Badenoch misses an open goal…

Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, sitting the other side of the beleaguered Ms Rayner, did the same on her right shoulder.

Rachel Reeves, who also knows all about being beleaguered and shedding tears in public, looked across at her and smiled sympathetically.

If Labour feared a brutal PMQs onslaught from Kemi Badenoch, they needn’t have worried. “Why is she still in office?” the Tory leader began. So far, so good.

“If he had a backbone he would sack her,” she said in the second of her six questions. But that was it. “But let us get back to borrowing,” she continued.

Inexplicably, the Tory leader ploughed on with her pre-prepared questions on government borrowing. Labour MPs couldn’t believe their luck. Cue numerous jokes about missed open goals.

After another dud Kemi-Kaze performance at PMQs, some MPs were even speculating that Ms Rayner’s survival prospects – slim, at best – remain better than those of the Tory leader.

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Badenoch calls on PM to sack Rayner

…but others go in studs up

But in the cruel world of social media, Ms Rayner was not spared a vicious onslaught from critics from across the political divide. You’d better keep your phone switched off, Angi.

From the spiky shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, Ms Rayner was “the property tax dodging, freeloading deputy prime minister” who had “finally admitted breaking the law and evading paying taxes owed”.

There was more. “She says that she’s sorry,” said punchy Priti. “But she’s only sorry that she was caught out. Rotten Rayner should go.”

Nadhim Zahawi, who was sacked as Tory chairman in 2023 after an inquiry found he failed to disclose an investigation into his tax affairs, added: “Did you think about my children Angela Rayner?

“Breaks my heart seeing anybody distressed about their children, but the hypocrisy really does hurt.”

But it wasn’t just Tories – who let’s not forget were denounced as “Scum!” by Ms Rayner back in 2021, in what she described as “street language” – who were brutal.

The acerbic George Galloway declared: “She’s a lowlife”. For good measure, he claimed she was “on the make” and on “Supermarket Sweep, piling her trolley full”.

Read more:
Rayner admits she should have paid more stamp duty
Rayner came out fighting in Sky interview
Rayner’s tax affairs statement in full

However, from the trade union movement, which campaigned hard for the DPM’s workers’ rights legislation, there was unequivocal support.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak told Sky News: “Angela Rayner comes under sustained coverage because she’s a working-class woman in a way that frankly Nigel Farage, leading members of the shadow cabinet, never would.

“I think there’s a real heavy dose of misogyny when it comes to Angela.

“I wouldn’t want to see a hounded out of an important role by right wing politicians and the right wing media who frankly can’t handle the fact that a working class woman is our deputy prime minister.”

There was sympathy from one party leader, Sir Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats, who said that as a parent of a disabled child “I know the thing my wife and I worry most about is our son’s care after we have gone”.

👉 Click here to listen to Electoral Dysfunction on your podcast app 👈

Shortly after PMQs, opening a Tory debate on, yes, property taxes, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride opted for ridicule and mockery. “I’m absolutely certain that the deputy prime minister had a good recess,” he began.

“We saw many photographs of her down at the seaside, just off the coast in a rubber dinghy, rather like many of the other photographs over the summer given the reckless policies this government has towards illegal migration.

“She was probably celebrating the acquisition of another property for her property empire, but perhaps also slightly tinged with that nagging doubt as to whether she had indeed paid enough stamp duty.

“Well, we’ll get to the bottom of that in due course.”

Quite so, Mel. We will.

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Angela Rayner’s tax affairs interview in full

A fight for survival

Let’s also reflect that on Monday Sir Keir Starmer proudly announced: “Phase two of my government starts today.” On Tuesday, he informed MPs, he was “speaking at length” to Ms Rayner. Must have been awkward.

And on Wednesday, the PM had to watch her tearful confession, just minutes before facing MPs in the Commons.

Not a great start to phase two, prime minister. Nor for his embattled and tearful deputy, who’s now fighting for political survival.

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Can Starmer live without Rayner?

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Can Starmer live without Rayner?

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈

The government minister responsible for housing didn’t pay enough tax on her house.

Sam and Anne let Angela Rayner’s admission sink in on this episode – as they wonder how much government business is on hold as a result.

The independent ethics adviser Laurie Magnus’ view on how she took inaccurate legal advice could be public within days – presumably that means the cabinet reshuffle has to wait until the Deputy Prime Minister knows her fate.

Never mind what else it might mean for the early days of Keir Starmer’s “phase two”.

But, whatever the outcome, is it safer for Starmer to keep Angela Rayner in a job?

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DIY retirement savers in Australia trim crypto nest eggs by 4%

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DIY retirement savers in Australia trim crypto nest eggs by 4%

DIY retirement savers in Australia trim crypto nest eggs by 4%

Australia’s tax office reports self-managed retirement funds have 4% less crypto than last year, but one crypto executive says the number is likely “undercooked.”

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