They Are Not Deterred: BBC Breakfast Host Confronts Tory Minister On Rwanda Plan With Live Footage Of Migrant Channel Crossing [Video]

BBC Breakfast host Jon Kay put Tory Minister Michael Tomlinson on the spot on Tuesday morning by showing footage from that morning of asylum seekers embarking on the hazardous journey across the Channel, just hours after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed through his Rwanda bill.

The images challenge the government’s narrative that its new Rwanda deportation plan would act as a deterrent for the migrant boat crossings.

Kay said: “I have to ask you again about deterrence because, although the bill has now passed overnight, it has been the case that people crossing the channel for a year or so have known that they could be sent to Rwanda. And, yet, what we’re seeing right now on our screens this morning on BBC Breakfast is people still prepared to take that risk. They are not deterred.”

Tomlinson, clearly uncomfortable, pushed back arguing that “the deterrent effect” would take time, citing as an example the effect of a scheme …