U.K. Conservative Party chairman: unhappy migrants should 'f**k off back to France'

Evening Standard

The deputy chairman of the U.K.'s governing Conservative party has stated that if illegal migrants are unhappy with the conditions on Britain's new migrant barges, they are free to "f*ck off back to France."

Lee Anderson, the Conservative MP for Ashfield, made the statement to the Express newspaper. He expressed his frustration, saying, "I think people have just had enough," referring to the situation with illegal migrants.

"These people come across the Channel in small boats, if they don’t like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better, not come at all in the first place."

Anderson, who assumed the role of deputy chairman of the governing party in February 2023, made remarks regarding the ongoing migration crisis on England's southern border. Last year, a record 45,755 migrant crossings were recorded, with the majority of those individuals subsequently seeking asylum.

His comments were defended by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, who stated that Anderson’s language was "salty" but his point was "not unreasonable."

Note to the Left.

Every illegal migrant that crosses the Channel from France is taking the place of someone genuinely in danger in a refugee camp.

Why can't you see that these fit healthy young men are actually preventing help reaching those desperate people who really need it? pic.twitter.com/hAtQBlLzT5

— Lee Anderson MP (@LeeAndersonMP_) August 8, 2023

"Lee Anderson expresses the righteous indignation of the British people. He does it in salty terms and that’s his style, but his indignation is well placed," Chalk told Nick Ferrari on LBC. "People coming from a safe country… They should claim asylum in the first country (in which they arrive). It shouldn’t be an open shopping list of where you want to go," he stated.

The justice secretary said his Conservative colleague "expresses himself in his characteristically robust terms, but there is a lot of sense, in my respectful view, in what he says.

The Conservative government has been working to decrease a significant backlog in the asylum process and to relocate asylum seekers, who are currently living in hotels at a daily cost of around £6 million a day to the British taxpayer.

The plan includes moving them to more cost-effective accommodations, such as disused army bases and migrant barges.