Protest mobs will not stop removal of illegal migrants, vows Home Secretary
PROTEST mobs will not stop the removal of illegal migrants, the Home Secretary vowed today.
It came as police and protesters clashed after tyres were slashed on a coach taking migrants to the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Officials accused the rabble of “intimidatory and aggressive” behaviour outside a hotel used to house asylum-seekers.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “We will continue to remove those with no right to be here.
“No amount of chanting, drum banging or tyre-slashing by a noisy few will prevent us doing what is necessary to deliver the firm but fair approach that the British people expect.”
The coach, which left empty this afternoon due to the demonstrations, was at the Best Western hotel in Peckham, South London, to move eight migrants to the accommodation site in Portland, Dorset.
It is part of a government pledge to stop housing people in costly hotels.
Police made 45 arrests for obstruction and assaulting police officers.
One arrest was for a racially aggravated offence, officers said — but was not linked to the protest group.
Protesters were picked up and dragged out of the road, with cops pelted with eggs, sworn at and called a disgrace.
Policing Minister Chris Philp said: “Thugs using force cannot be allowed to stop lawful work.”
The Home Office added: “This behaviour is intimidatory and aggressive.”
The Home Office abandoned plans to move 22 asylum-seekers from Margate, Kent, to the Bibby Stockholm barge last week in the wake of similar protests.
Some 711 migrants crossed the Channel in 14 small boats on Wednesday — the most in a single day so far this year.
LAB BOAT BLAST
BY JACK ELSOM
LABOUR was slammed tonight after admitting it would let small-boat migrants claim asylum.
Under current laws, illegal arrivals since March 2023 will never be granted a right to stay.
An estimated 90,000-plus people will be sent home or to Rwanda.
But Sir Keir Starmer’s party is committed to hearing their claims.
Some could be rejected although the current grant rate is 67 per cent.
Home Secretary James Cleverly called it an amnesty that would “put more power in people smugglers’ hands and cause more death”.