Reform UK's Zia Yusuf accuses Andy Burnham of 'inciting disorder' over migrant landings in Gosport
He called the situation a ‘catastrophe’
Zia Yusuf has said the prime minister is “inciting disorder” after 149 migrants landed in Gosport on Sunday October 4, and labelled the use of a dispersal order across the town as “martial law”.
The Reform UK spokesperson visited Haslar Marina in Gosport today following the landing of 149 migrants at Fort Blockhouse, a former military building in the area, at 10:20pm on Sunday night. The migrants were then taken to a processing centre in Kent by bus in the early hours of Monday morning.
Mr Yusuf said: “What we're seeing in Gosport is another catastrophe. Andy Burnham is laying on yet another police escort for illegal migrants, mostly military-aged men who are breaking into this country.
“When British people hear that there's a huge police operation and they hear the words ‘illegal migration,’ they'd correctly or reasonably assume that the police and the state are there to stop people invading our sovereign territory. In fact, it's the complete opposite.
“Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood are laying on police escorts. They used a Section 34 notice to effectively lock local residents, around 80,000 people, in their homes for a few hours. They issued a Section 14 notice, which made anti-migrant protesters basically the only people in the country not allowed to cover their faces.
“It is an absolute disgrace. We've had enough of it. Local people have had enough of it.
“I call it state-sponsored incitement because Andy Burnham is inciting disorder. You can go to any country, any society in the world, if a state wields state power in order to impose essentially invading men into local communities and give them absolutely no say about it whatsoever, you're going to get a reaction from those local people.”
The landing in Gosport on Sunday is the second time migrants have been brought to Hampshire shores in the past month, as 120 migrants landed at Eastney Point on September 6.
A large police presence was also seen in Gosport on September 22 after rumours spread that a boat carrying migrants was due to land at Fort Blockhouse, however no vessels came to the harbour.
Mr Yusuf said that landings are happening "routinely", and said: “I feel empathy and sympathy for local residents who feel terrified and helpless.
“The correct place for illegal migrants to be is not in this country. And I want to say it again: we are now in this insane situation where Andy Burnham is laying on presidential-style motorcades for illegal migrant men breaking into the country.
“One of the horrible ironies is this is all happening just moments away from Portsmouth, the home of His Majesty's Royal Navy. I promise you this: we get a Reform government and I'm the Home Secretary, the Navy are not going to sit idly by and watch this catastrophe unfold. Prime Minister Farage will order our military into the Channel. They will have clear orders to not allow a single unauthorized vessel to make it to our shores.”
When asked what he thought of the RNLI helping migrants who attempt channel crossings in inflatable dinghies, he said: “I think anybody involved in assisting and aiding and abetting the invasion of this country should ask themselves very seriously the question of if this something that they can live with themselves for doing.
“There is a real consequence for this. There are people like Rhiannon White who have been stabbed to death, for example. She was stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver as she waited at a train station after work. Where was her police escort?”
However, Mr Yusuf was clear that he placed the blame for migrant landings solely on the Labour government.
“The person responsible for this today is the man who can stop it all with a phone call or at the stroke of a pen, and that is the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham,” he said.
“That is why I'm holding him responsible, because he can stop all of this immediately. Put our Navy in the Channel, they're more than capable of doing it, our Royal Marines. They will intercept and take on board any illegal migrants trying to make that hazardous journey, and they'll take them back to France.
“Instead of wielding state power against your own people and helping the invasion to happen, do your duty as the Prime Minister. Protect and defend our sovereign territory.”