Nigel Farage clashes with caller who says Jeremy Corbyn is right in deportation row

12 February 2020, 21:13 | Updated: 12 February 2020, 21:26

Nigel Farage and an LBC caller disagreed over whether Jeremy Corbyn was right to pull the "race card" in the deportation row during Prime Minister's Questions.

Kate, from Ilford, told Nigel that as black British woman she felt Corbyn raised an argument that she hasn't "heard a lot of people say."

Following a fiery clash between Corbyn and Boris Johnson today amid a row over the deportation of foreign criminals to Jamaica, Kate said she felt the decision to deport was racial.

She said: "I think that picking on foreign nationals is an easy option to boost the toughness on crime"

Nigel added: "They could be white Kate. Foreign nationals are white as well."

Kate replied: "However in this instance, he [Boris Johnson] probably got a lot of backlash from the black community because it is obvious from our skin colour that we have connections to foreign nationals.

"I have connections to foreign nationals, I'm British but my husband was not and the children that we have brought over now to live with us in this country - we are trying to save up - they are adults now.

"But they don't have access to the thousands of pounds that it is going to cost them to do their citizenship and we have paid like £16,000 to get them here.

She added: "Now we are still at a disadvantage and we still have to find this money and we know there is a higher likelihood of them being arrested and charged with one of these crimes."

Nigel told her: "Kate, if they don't rape or murder or deal in Class A drugs, they will not be arrested and potentially be up for deportation will they?"

Kate began: "Well as a black person ..."

He responded: "I don't care if whether you are black, white. The fact is, if you are foreign national who has committed a heinous crime, I don't want you here."

Responding with a comment on white British criminals, she said: "Yes - and if you are white British I don't want you here."

"So where would you deport a British person," Nigel asked her.

Kate concluded: "If we are going to be tough on crime we should be tough with everybody."

Their discussion comes after Jeremy Corbyn accused Boris Johnson's government of learning "absolutely nothing from the Windrush scandal."

Branding the Tory government "cruel and callous," the Opposition leader said they were attempting to "mislead the British people into thinking it's solely deporting foreign nationals who are guilty of murder, rape and other very serious offences."

But the Labour leader said, "this is clearly not the case."

Mr Corbyn cited a "young black boy who came to the UK aged five and is now being deported after serving time for a drugs offence."

Taking aim at the Prime Minister, who has reportedly admitted taking cocaine when he was 19, the Labour leader said: "If there was a case of a young white boy, with blonde hair, who later dabbled in class A drugs, and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist, would he deport that boy?

"Or, is it one rule for young black boys from the Caribbean and another for white boys from the United States."

Mr Corbyn's remark prompted jeers in the Commons and he was quickly accused of pulling the "race card".