Shabana Mahmood and 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳’s gall over UK immigration crisis is unmatched

Our Labour Government leaders have only empty words to offer.

Shabana Mahmood has some gall (Image: Getty)

If the irony wasn’t so deadly serious anyone could have been excused for simply laughing out loud. But the sheer gall displayed by both Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Prime Minister Sir 𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 over the catastrophic failure of border control was unmatched. It started with headlines proclaiming Mahmood was hosting a summit with Balkan interior ministers, as both sides of the continent have now woken up to the challenges and risks that unchecked immigration can bring.

Mahmood declared: “The public rightly expect that their government will be able to determine who enters their country and who must leave.” The fact that anyone, let alone the Home Secretary, can think this is even remotely earth-shattering shows how utterly deluded and out of touch they are. But it was to get worse.

She went on: “I am proud that the UK is leading the charge on a coordinated response to tackle organised crime and take down the vile people-smuggling gangs.”

At the latest count more than 50,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats since Labour took office, with 35,500 this year alone, an increase of 30% on last year. And those empty words echo down the years from a pathetic platoon of previous PM’s and Home Secretaries who have used the self-same language to zero effect.

Meanwhile, proof of the dangers these unchecked migrants pose just keeps on coming. It was less than a month ago that Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Kebatu was jailed for sexual assault of a woman and a teenaged girl and whose arrest led to the wave of protests seen across much of the country.

The day before Mahmood spouted her vapid drivel, Afghan asylum seeker Fayaz Khan was jailed for five years after threatening to kill Nigel Farage. Khan, who claims to be 26 but is believed to be at least five years older, entered the country illegally last year from Sweden, where he’d already been convicted of possession of a knife, minor bodily harm, threatening behaviour and vandalism.

Sir Keir addressed the threats against Farage at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions and said he “unequivocally condemns” such violence – which is yet another example of his beloved lawyerly waffle that makes the rest of us laugh out loud.

Mere words again, and as empty as his pledge to “smash the gangs.”

But as research published last week showed Channel migrants are 24 times more likely to be jailed than British citizens, the government must realise that meaningless promises fuel the simmering fury building up and down the land.