'Do You Want To Apologise?' BBC Presenter Skewers Top Tory Over His Party's Immigration Record

A BBC presenter skewered a top Tory over his party’s immigration record while in office. Jon Kay showed shadow home secretary Chris Philp evidence of the soaring numbers who entered the UK while Boris Johnson was prime minister and asked him: “Do you want to apologise?” Net migration – the difference between the numbers entering and leaving the country – peaked at more than 900,000 during the so-called “Boriswave” at the start of the decade.

On BBC Breakfast this morning, Kay told Philp: “It’s because those people are now getting to the five year point of being here that they are in the position of applying for indefinite leave to remain. “You yourself were working as a minister in the Home Office when that wave reached its peak, weren’t you? Do you want to apologise for creating this problem in the first place?” Philp replied: “I did not have personal responsibility for immigration in the Home Office.

But let me be honest, that should never have happened. “That was wrong, and under Kemi as leader and me as the new shadow home secretary, that will never happen again.” As Philp tried to deflect attention on to home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s U-turn on her own immigration crackdown, Kay said: “Let’s stick with you. Do you want to apologise for that wave that happened on your watch in government?” Philp said: “I’m not going to personally apologise because it wasn’t my policy area, but I will say it was wrong and it should not have happened.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.