The Day Far-Right Hate was Normalised in the House

The Day Far-Right Hate Was Normalised in the House

A debate on asylum accommodation and safeguarding echoed far-right online chat, in a worrying shift of the Conservative Party’s migration rhetoric, Sian Norris reports

On Sunday 31 October, a 66-year-old man, known for posting far-right, anti-migrant screeds on Facebook, threw firebombs at an immigration processing centre in Dover, Kent.

According to analysis by the campaigning group Hope Not Hate, Andrew Leak shared far-right content, including that he was “ready” and to “let the games begin” in response to a post about “illegal immigrants”. The incident is now being treated by police as a terrorist act. Leak took his own life. 

Just over a week since the attack, politicians gathered in the House of Commons to debate asylum seekers’ accommodation and safeguarding, in the wake of overcrowding, disease and distress at a processing centre in Manston. 

The language used by Conservative MPs to describe their disdain for the people held in Manston did not feel too distant from the far-right hate consumed by men like Leak. 

There was compassion on display. Sir Roger Gale has been outspoken in his criticism of the way vulnerable migrant people have been treated in Manston, and praised the immigration minister Robert Jenrick – deputising for the Home Secretary Suella Braverman – who spoke of his commitment to a “humane and decent facility that provides compassionate care”. 

But things quickly took a turn for the hateful. 

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Ingratitude and Ignorance

The Conservative MP Lee Anderson spoke of getting a “bitter taste in my throat” when he heard about “talk of sourcing housing and getting extra hotel spaces for illegal immigrants”, mentioning the social housing waiting list in Ashfield.

Anderson asked “when are we going to grow a backbone and do the right thing by sending them straight back the next day?” Back, presumably, to France – but equally he could have meant to Iran, Syria, Afghanistan or Albania, from where most of the people crossing the Channel arrive. 

Sir Edward Leigh, known for his Christian beliefs, argued that Albanian men were “claiming modern slavery” – demonstrating ignorance of the way the National Referral Mechanism works. Victims of modern slavery have to be referred to the mechanism by designated first responders. Men cannot simply “claim” victimisation. This lack of understanding was echoed by Rachel Maclean who said “we are seeing that it is possible for an Albanian male, under our modern slavery legislation, to become a confirmed victim of modern slavery”.

It’s worth noting that a person can be male, Albanian, and a victim of modern slavery. 

Leigh went on to say the UK needed to “repeal the Human Rights Act, get out of the European refugee convention and repeal the Modern Slavery Act 2015, so that people can be detained when they arrive for being involved in an illegal activity and then deported”. 

Two MPs from the 2019 intake, Scott Benton and Brendan Clarke-Smith, both complained that migrant people showed ingratitude. Benton claimed that his “constituents are becoming sick and tired of this ridiculous narrative of economic migrants somehow being mistreated at Manston”. As for Clarke-Smith, he asked if Jenrick would agree “is it insulting to hear the Opposition say that the accommodation and hospitality offered by this country is not good enough? Many of my constituents would be grateful to be afforded such luxury”.

That “luxury” in Manston includes outbreaks of diphtheria, MRSA and scabies, overcrowding, and children being held behind chain-link fences, with no shower facilities until a few weeks ago. Detainees reported being given hot dogs, burgers and chips for meals, and having to sleep on wooden floors under blankets as the temperatures started to drop in early autumn. 

Benton stated that migrant people received “free food and free hotel accommodation”, something which “my constituents, who are paying for all this, can only dream of”.

As this paper has reported previously, people seeking asylum held in hotels are entitled to an £8 per week allowance above their food and accommodation. The food is often not suitable, and there have been reports of children failing to thrive, with the diet leading to new presentations of type 2 diabetes in young patients, as well as poorly controlled type 1 and type 2 diabetes resulting in hospital admissions for diabetic ketoacidosis. 

Matilda Bryce, Asylum Policy and Campaigns Manager at Freedom from Torture, told Byline Times: “As the attack by a right-wing terrorist on a refugee centre in Dover just a week ago clearly shows, words matter. The dehumanising and inflammatory language used by certain politicians is putting people fleeing war and persecution, including the torture survivors that Freedom from Torture treat every day. The Government must urgently consider the potential consequences of the dangerous road they are heading down”.

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Far Right Rhetoric Reaches Parliament

Consider these comments in the light of far-right activists sharing their views on migration on Telegram.

One leading far-right commentator complained that “migrants” were being housed in “5 STAR HOTELS!” while “Britons struggle to pay their gas bills”. Leigh raised how a luxury hotel had been used to host migrant people. The same commentator blamed Leak’s attack on politicians and the media, complaining that “thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants are housed in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense, millions of indigenous Britons are living on the poverty line and struggling to heat their homes”. 

In response to a story about a pensioner struggling with the cost of living crisis, he ‘joked’ that if she “just washed up in a dinghy then she would be living in a five star hotel”. He scaremongered about rationing as a result of the cost of living crisis, before remarking that “this will NOT effect [sic] illegal immigrants, they are being housed in three and four star hotels and have all their meals cooked for them and served up in a hotel restaurant”. 

Members of Tommy Robinson’s Official Telegram Chat responded to the crisis in Manston in similar style: complaining that “illegals” get a “decent roof over their heads” while British people sleep rough. Over on Tommy Robinson News, a post shared “more Asylum seekers moaning about the three meals and snacks per day they get for free, paid for by you!”

They also followed the lead of Conservative Party MPs in expressing disbelief that Albanians could be genuine refugees – that it is a “beautiful country, good food and the people I have met are very nice. Why would it have people leaving and claiming they are refugees”. “I haven’t heard of a war in Albania,” writes one. 

Some Conservative MPs, including Richard Drax, expressed concern about the safety of constituents living near hotels. This was a fear shared by the far-right, one speculating that staff faced “gang rape or the dole. It’s going to be a hard Christmas for female hotel workers”. It is worth remembering that two children seeking asylum have alleged sexual assault in temporary accommodation, and one staff member was sexually assaulted in Manston. 

Far-right activists also echoed Conservative MPs’ criticisms of the global legal frameworks: one post on Tommy Robinson News said: “basically anyone can land here and trip out any sob story and due to the outdated Refugee Convention, it can be twisted to make any case viable”.

“Just deport them,” a far-right post reads. “Deport them,” reads another. And another. And another. A week after a far-right terror attack intended to harm migrant people, it has started to feel impossible to tell the far-right rhetoric, from the hard-line anti-migrant rhetoric of some MPs. 

Nick Lowles, CEO of HOPE not hate told Byline Times: “This normalising of far-right, anti-migrant rhetoric shapes hostile public opinion and encourages the far-right at a time when violent extremism is at a high. We have warned the Government time and time again that their failure to provide suitable community-based accommodation while ramping up hostile language and fuelling enmity and division with an inhumane and unworkable system would have dangerous consequences that we have seen before”.