An audience member clashed with Tory MP Danny Kruger last night and accused him of lying about illegal immigration.
The government has just toughened up immigration rules so most people who arrive to the UK via small boats cannot become British citizens – including people who are already here.
It’s part of Labour’s wider bid to show it is tough on immigration.
But one member of the BBC Question Time audience slammed this approach, and said: “I find it quite disgusting how we’re talking about human beings – it’s not illegal to claim asylum in a foreign country, OK?
“Saying they’re illegal immigrants – they’re not, they’re asylum seekers and refugees.
“Legal immigrants tend to be people who could here illegally and overstay a visa, or who overstay an application. That’s the majority of illegal immigrants who are in this country.
“They’re not people who are fleeing war, and we know countries that are closer to the Middle East tend to take on a lot more refugees than we ever do.”
He said there is an element of calling these people “invaders” and “dehumanising them” so they can be blamed for issues such as the housing shortage.
“But we have only built 250,000 council houses since Thatcher came into power. Before that we built five million, that’s a fact. I don’t understand why people like to always claim immigrants are the problem when it’s recent successive governments who are the problem.”
Tory MP Danny Kruger then began to argue that people are arriving here illegally, only for the same man to shout over him: “No they’re not!”
Kruger said: “It is illegal breaking into this country. They should be deported.”
The member of the audience said again: “It’s not illegal to request asylum, you’re lying. You’re lying!”
The Tory MP said the UK has a “genuine obligation to what we can to the needy of the world, to the displaced, to the dispossessed, to the people fleeing torture, and we do that generously in this country as we always have.”
But he added that the UK has taken “hundreds of thousands of people from war-torn country” – only for the audience member to shout: “So has every other country in Europe!”
Kruger put his hand up and replied: “There are 100 million human beings in this world who would qualify for refugee status, are you suggesting that any of those people who can make it to these shores should be able to live here?”
“That’s not what is being argued, is it?” The audience member hit back, adding that “100 million people are not trying to come here”.
Kruger just hit back that people should only be allowed to live in the UK if they apply “properly” and are “deserving of asylum”.
“You can’t have anybody who can afford to pay thousands of pounds to cross Europe, and pay a people trafficker,” the MP said.
Journalist George Monbiot, who was also sat on the panel, sided with the man in the crowd and pointed out: “You can’t apply for asylum until you arrive on these shores.
“But you cannot also – in your home country that you are trying to escape – seek a visa on the basis that you are going to apply for asylum.
“It’s a perfect Catch-22.”
He noted there is no formal route for people to come to the UK which would satisfy the government, which is why migrants have to try and get here via other means.