Labour MP torn apart on GB News as furious migrant row explodes 'Wake up!'

A major clash over immigration broke out on GB News as Reform UK's Sarah Pochin and Labour's Barry Gardiner butted heads in a heated exchange. It comes as Reform UK's Nigel Farage and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper both unveiled huge plans to tackle the migrant crisis.

Farage announced plans to remove 600,000 migrants within five years if elected to power, whereas Cooper also unveiled sweeping changes to Britain's asylum framework. She announced restrictions on family reunification for refugees and a complete restructuring of the appeals process. On GB News, Reform MP Sarah Pochin backed Farage's plans, as she said: "Under a Reform Government, they will be deported. Their family will never, ever be invited into this country. And they will never be allowed to ask for asylum here again."

Mr Gardiner argued back, saying that it still "won't stop them". He furiously questioned: "One, what is their crime? That's the first thing you say 'they're all criminals'.

"Yes, but what is their crime? And the second thing is, how does leaving the European Human Rights Convention actually stop people coming here? It doesn't.

"You said we will stop them on day one because we will leave the convention. But that's not going to stop people coming here."

After a bit of back and forth, the Labour politician then raised the point that most asylum seekers go to work once they are accepted as refugees. But Ms Pochin fumed: "They're working in the illegal economy."

Mr Gardiner argued back: "They are illegal, but they're the people who have not yet been accepted as genuine asylum seekers," before going on to say: "Very often they're people waiting to have their case heard. So, you're absolutely right the appeal system is a problem. It's one of the things she said we needed to speed up."

But that was when Ms Pochin questioned the security of speeding up any vetting as she asked: "What does that do for vetting? What does that do to ensure the security of the people coming into this country?"

As the Labour MP tried to skirt around the question, Ms Pochin exploded: "Wake up and smell the coffee! The boatloads of young, fighting-age men coming onto our shores onto our beaches they are not refugees from war-torn areas.

"We will take Afghan interpreters. We will take genuine refugees. But these boatloads of young males are not genuine refugees. They are economic migrants. They are criminals. They are illegal."