Reform’s Zia Yusuf in heated clash with presenter over parents migration from Sri Lanka

Transcript

00:00We're paying eight billion pounds of taxpayer money for universal credit for foreign nationals

00:05every year. We're paying four billion pounds and have done for many years now to accommodate

00:09illegal migrants. It's totally unacceptable and I'm afraid people are sick of it.

00:14Your parents came here in the 1980s. Why did they choose to come to the UK from Sri Lanka?

00:21Well, you should probably speak to my parents about that, but I actually don't think it's

00:25particularly relevant. My parents did not come here on a boat across the channel illegally.

00:30No, no, no. I didn't say that.

00:32And they've contributed to the country. I didn't say that.

00:34You know what? I actually put it to you. You would not be asking this question.

00:39There's actually something fundamentally interesting about you asking me that question,

00:44because the insinuation of your question is that there is a limit to how restrictive an immigration

00:49policy I can advocate for on the basis that my parents happen to be immigrants. And I'm afraid,

00:54I think there's something very unreasonable about that line of questioning.

00:57No, I think you're deriving the wrong insinuation. I'm interested to know why they came to Britain.

01:02I wonder if it's because it's seen as an empathetic and accommodating place.