Britain should let migrants drown in Channel, Reform UK deputy leader suggests

Reform Party deputy leader wildly suggests Britain should let migrants drown in ChannelTalkTV

Transcript

00:00The presumption in your question is that we have a duty of care to people who are seeking to enter our country illegally.

00:08We have a duty of care to people drowning in the channel, yes.

00:11Well, we only, by the way, under international law, Article 98 of the UN Convention of Law of the Sea,

00:18we only have an obligation to save people if it's reasonable to do so.

00:22And under the same international law, we have the right to turn people back who are seeking to enter our waters illegally.

00:28I understand, I love it, turning people back, but the point when they refuse to be turned back

00:33or someone just puts a knife into the dinghy and it starts deflating or they jump into the water

00:38because they've been told that's what you do and then you'll be picked up.

00:40You know as well as I do, anybody who has ever been on a boat will know that the rules of the sea are very clear.

00:45You have to save life where you can save life.

00:47Only if it's reasonable to do so.

00:50It will be reasonable to do so because there will be people drowning.

00:52No, I don't think it's reasonable.

00:54Are you genuinely saying the Reform UK policy is we will let people drown to make a point?

01:01Because I don't think that's what you're saying.

01:03No, Julia, if someone comes, let's not infantilise these people.

01:08They have free will. They were safe in France.

01:11They paid good money to get on a boat seeking illegally to come.

01:15So I'm not going to infantilise them and I'm not going to be held to ransom by their claim

01:20that they deserve protection as soon as they get into our territorial waters.

01:22I agree with all of that.

01:23At the point when they use the tactic of jumping into the sea and they're drowning,

01:28are you saying that British Border Force and British Navy will be instructed not to rescue those people from drowning?

01:34No, you didn't hear me.

01:35I said that we could, as an idea, provide them with another dinghy into which to climb

01:40and then go back to France and if they choose to scupper that dinghy,

01:43then yes, they have to suffer the consequences of their actions.

01:46Then you would leave them to drown?

01:49Absolutely, they cannot be infantilised to the point that we become a hostage to fortune.

01:53I have no doubt, Ben, that that is a policy that would work quite well.

01:57However, that is not a policy that a civilised country should endorse.

02:01Why is that uncivilised, Julia?

02:03Explain to me why.

02:04Because we don't need people to drown, because we're civilised human beings.