'Who wouldn't cross the Channel to keep their family alive?', caller asks after Sunak and Macron hold UK-France summit
10 March 2023, 16:11 | Updated: 10 March 2023, 16:12
Caller: 'Refugees are people as well'
A caller is bewildered after Rishi Sunak says his plan to block migrants crossing the Channel is "all about the people" while keeping a straight face at the press conference in France.
Speaking to Shelagh Fogarty, Linda in Cockermouth asks how Rishi Sunak can say it's "all about the people" with a "serious face".
Linda claimed: "It's all about the people as long as they're French or British.
"Well refugees are people as well and this whole conference today, or the bits I've heard about the boat people, it's all part of this cleverly managed disconnect, this Tory Party cleverly managed to disconnect the refugees and people like us - they're like a different species."
The call comes after Mr Sunak and Mr Macron announced a new deal to help manage the migrant crossings at a press conference in France on Friday afternoon.
Among the details of the new three-year deal, the UK will help fund a detention centre in France to help manage the people trying to cross the Channel, the British government said on Friday. The government said that "the French will contribute significantly more funding".
Linda continued: "Refugees love their children the same as we do and who wouldn't try to get across the channel in a boat if it was going to keep you and your family safe and alive?
"I just cannot believe he's uttered the words and my husband is at work Shelagh so there's only you I can rant on about this."
Laughing, Shelagh replied: "I'm happy to be a substitute sounding board."
Shelagh went on to say: "We know it's difficult, you have to give them at least that acknowledgment, that we know these things are very difficult both politically and in fact.
"But we've seen examples that can work, so apply those examples and we just don't."
