Should Robert Jenrick quit? We are asking Mirror readers for their view after the former Tory made his latest set of controversial comments, sparking a furious backlash
Robert Jenrick is facing a growing backlash after claiming Royal Marines will use “lethal force” on migrants in the Channel if Nigel Farage becomes Prime Minister.
Defence Readiness Minister Luke Pollard said Reform UK were trying to distract from the “sleaze and scandal” engulfing the party with the comments, and they were also criticised by Lord Alf Dubs, a Labour peer who fled the Nazis as a child.
Former Tory immigration minister Mr Jenrick, Reform’s pick to be Chancellor if Mr Farage gets into No10, had told Talk TV: “What we are going to do, and we’re the only political party that has the courage to say this, is deploy the Royal Marines into the Channel. If they need to use lethal force, then they’ll be able to do so.
“That’s obviously not what we want to see happen. We want to see these individuals picked up off the boats in a sensible and reasonable way, and taken straight back to France. But I think the problem would come to an end very, very quickly, within a matter of days.”
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Responding, Defence Readiness Minister Mr Pollard said: “It’s abhorrent to British values, and frankly, it’s illegal and disgusting. And I don’t think that anyone should give this any truck, because we can all see what this is. It’s a simple attempt to distract from Reform’s internal woes by seeking to put a dead cat on the table.”
Lord Dubs said: “It’s against international law to endanger lives at sea, all these things are horrific.” And he continued: “I think this goes against all our traditions, whatever Farage thinks about these people, they’re people who are fleeing for their safety in this country.
The idea of using force in this country and endangering their lives is totally, totally wrong.”
Reforms’s Zia Yusuf distanced the party from the comments on Tuesday morning, after being asked by the BBC’s Jon Kay about people on the boats being innocent.
He said: “This is a humanitarian mission, you’re absolutely right, many of those people will not have been processed. However, our intelligence agencies do sometimes have information about the people on those boats.