Portsmouth leaders defend small boat stance after heated council debate

Claims that Portsmouth councillors voted to allow more small boat arrivals have been dismissed as “absolute rubbish” following a heated council debate.

Portsmouth councillors have explained why they voted against the “spirit” of a Reform UK motion calling for the city to be ruled out as a location for small boat disembarkations.

Following yesterday’s full council meeting, members rejected a notice of motion on small boat crossings put forward by the Reform UK group.

The motion called on council leaders to write to the government to outline that Portsmouth is unsuitable for small boat disembarkations.

It also argued that residents’ concerns about small boat arrivals are “legitimate” and that they are not “racist” or “thugs”.

The debate followed the arrival of around 120 asylum seekers at Eastney on September 6 after they were rescued from a small boat which had crossed the Channel from Normandy.

The arrival was followed by a protest which saw clashes between police and demonstrators. Multiple men have since been charged with violent disorder.

During the meeting, Cllr George Madgwick noted that opposition parties could have amended the motion to reflect their differences of opinion.

In response, council leader Cllr Steve Pitt said the Liberal Democrats did not amend it “because we did not believe it was possible to do so in an acceptable way without negating the notice of motion, which I’m sure the monitoring officer will now confirm would have been ruled out had we done so”.

The council’s monitoring officer confirmed there would have been a debate over whether amendments were permissible and said he would have likely taken that view.

The motion was voted down by Liberal Democrat, Labour and one independent councillor.

Afterwards, Cllr Madgwick took to social media, arguing that councillors had voted “against the government to stop any more boat arrivals”.

“But the fact of the matter is Lib Dems and Labour in Portsmouth do not support a strong stance against more boats arriving here. No matter what spin they give you.”

In another social media post, Cllr Pitt described it as “absolute rubbish” to argue that the Liberal Democrats do not want the Government to stop small boat arrivals in the city.

He highlighted that the council had already written to the Government “to explain in the strongest terms that due to complex operational, welfare, security and public safety reasons, the city is the wrong place for small boat landings”.

The letter was sent on September 11, three days after the Reform UK group secured an extraordinary council meeting to debate the motion.

In response, the government pledged that Portsmouth would not become a “routine or designated location for small boat disembarkations”.

Cllr Pitt said he objected to the motion because it “sought to draw a distinction” between seriously and slightly injured emergency service personnel who were attacked during protests.

He also said it failed to condemn attacks on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, “implying that because no one has been charged with any crime, it’s somehow OK to abuse them and promote defunding them”.

He argued that the motion failed to discuss the “cause” of the issue, which he described as a “botched Brexit” that took the UK out of various international initiatives which helped process asylum seekers more effectively.

Cllr Suzy Horton, fellow Liberal Democrat, said: “I could never go with the spirit of this motion which seeks to divide and scapegoat whilst pretending to focus on a pragmatic request.

“Portsmouth was – and should remain – an unsuitable place for ‘the boats’ to land. But we all knew that anyway and had that confirmed by the Home Office.

“So the motion could easily have been withdrawn. IF that had been the spirit of it in the first place.”

In response, Cllr Madgwick said: “The motion simply asked very non-controversial things. It asked to tell the Home Office migrant boats aren’t welcome to dock in Portsmouth. It condemned violence of emergency workers and asked for future consultation.

“If they were unhappy with a few words they could have amended but they didn’t. Equally they could have abstained and not voted at all. Lib Dems can try and spin this however they want but the pure simple reality is last night the Liberals and Labour voted to allow more migrant boats to arrive and, more shockingly, they voted against condemning violence.

“I think it’s highly irresponsible of the council leader and Lib Dem group to vote against the condemnation of violence against emergency workers and they should apologise for that.

“I would never vote against condemning violence against our emergency workers. It’s a shame the Liberals now can’t say the same.”