'It’s a Quasi Prison': Tory MP blasts PMs migrant plan
5 June 2023, 15:38
A Conservative MP has let rip at Rishi Sunak after his migration announcement, in an intervention which will worry Downing Street.
Within the announcements made by the Prime Minister at his speech in Kent, Richard Drax labelled parts of the plan “a quasi prison” and told LBC “none of the key questions have been answered”
Mr Drax, who is the MP for South Dorset, will have a migrant barge off of Portland Port - a key part of his constituency.
“I’m against it, and I have been since I was told it was coming from the Home Secretary”. Mr Drax told LBC his opposition was pragmatic “the port is a highly restricted one, access will only be by coach”, he added “the barge is designed for 222 people en-suite, and it will have 526 on board… most of the rooms will be doubled, and some will have to have 3 or 4 inhabitants in there”
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The criticism will worry the government who are trying to grapple with a narrative that the Conservatives have taken their eye off the ball of illegal migration.
The Tory backbencher also raised concerns about the nature of having a “quasi prison” in Dorset. He said “if they are allowed off, and when they go into Weymouth, what will they do? Who will monitor them? They will be given £9 a week - which isn’t much money. What happens if they disappear? None of these questions have been answered”.
He also raised concerns about tourism saying “it is a seaside resort, we’re going to have a lot of families down here during the main period for revenue… this is the wrong idea.”
His scepticism was echoed by another backbench MP Sir Christopher Chope, who told LBC “we’ve got to go a lot further, and make sure the policies are actually deterring people from coming here, and I’m not sure that’s the situation at the moment”
Rishi Sunak will have hoped that todays announcement would have been enough to disarm his backbench colleagues, instead he may well have infuriated many of them.
