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Fiona Bruce grilled Labour’s Jake Richards on BBC Question Time last night about the small boat crisis. James was unable to answer her question after multiple attempts to wake it up Fiona turned to the audience for help.
On the show’s panel were, from the government, Justice Minister Jake Richards; the Conservative shadow Scottish secretary Harriet Cross; Max Wilkinson of the Liberal Democrats; the Daily Mirror’s associate editor Kevin Maguire; and the Telegraph’s senior political commentator Annabel Denham.
On the issue of illegal immigration, Fiona asked Justice Minister Jake Richards: “When it comes to small boats, do you as a government ever feel able to stop them completely?”
To which Jake answered the question several times, he said, “Illegal migration has been happening in this country for hundreds of years.” Fiona interjected, “Sure, but I’m especially asking about the small ships.” Jake added: “I’m not going to do what Rishi Sunak did and stand up and say ‘I’m going to stop the boats tomorrow’ and then you know you’re going to laugh it off right.”
Fiona asked for a second time, “So this isn’t something you as a government realistically think we’re going to commit to?” Jake replied: “The little boats and the scenes we see across our channel are an absolute disgrace.” Fiona interjected: “No, that’s a given. I’ll ask another question.” Jake said, “Let me answer the question.” Fiona said, “Well you’re not actually, it’s kind of a yes or no.” She then turned to the audience and asked, “Can I get an answer?”
Jake said, “Let me see if you can answer, we have a massive problem, we need to face it by providing a greater deterrent.
Fiona quickly continued by saying, “Okay, you made this point, but I realize you didn’t answer the question.”
