Iain Dale's fiery clash with Green Party's Sian Berry over Channel migrants arriving in UK

3 August 2021, 21:10 | Updated: 3 August 2021, 23:51

Clash between Iain Dale and Sian Berry over migration

By Seán Hickey

Sian Berry insists that the UK can do far more to accommodate migrants to meet the standard set by Europe.

The Green Party politician was adamant that the UK could do more to help migrants reaching our shores when Iain Dale accused her of "not addressing the question.

"Are the French doing their best to prevent illegal migration?" He pushed. Ms Berry told him that "the French are doing their best," before going on to explain they are "doing their best to persuade people to settle in France."

Iain couldn't believe his ears: "Really? Why would they do that?

"Why wouldn't they think 'actually, the more people we can get over to Britain, the better because we don't have to pay for them then.'"

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Ms Berry dismissed the concerns raised by Iain: "These people often have a very good reason to want to be in the UK," she pointed out, citing family and language as reasons people seek to arrive here.

"There are countries who have taken orders of magnitude more people to resettle," she went on to claim, much to the protestations of Iain.

"We take more people than any other European country from the camps," he noted, before Ms Berry claimed that "we are not doing our bit."

She concluded by telling Iain that the UK should develop its hospitality to asylum seekers and refugees to allow them to "genuinely settle somewhere new and build a life."