A tense row about small boat migrants erupted on GB News as a guest claimed it “wasn’t illegal”.
GB News presenter Dawn Neesom got into a fiery clash with a guest over small boat migrants coming to the UK. Professor Scott Lucas hit out at Donald Trump for saying that immigration is a “threat to Europe”, as he branded it nonsense.
Stephen Dixon asked him: “What was he saying that was nonsense about immigration?” to which Lucas replied: “Well he was repeating the standard lines that immigration is an existential threat to Europe, and of course I’ve lived in Europe and the UK for almost 40 years. I just listened to 40 minutes of commentary on your channel, a lot of which was misinformation. I could talk to you about the real figures of migrant crossings compared to 2022, that channel crossings are down 15%, but they’re not.
The GB News presenters were unimpressed with Lucas’ comments (Image: GB News)
“But they’re 15% down on 2022, which you never seem to mention. The number of asylum seekers in hotels is down, it is not illegal to cross the Channel on a small boat if you claim asylum, it is perfectly legal under international law.
“70% of asylum seekers in the UK, their claims are eventually accepted, in other words they have a legitimate case to come to the UK.
“I’m very concerned about you getting out the proper information precisely because this misinformation feeds tension and, discord, and violence.”
Dawn quickly hit back: “Scott, one thing, it is illegal to enter the country on a small boat from France, that is a criminal offence,” to which he said it was legal under “international law”.
The TV host replied: “This is Britain, this is British law we’re living under. The statistics and numbers we use come from the government, so are you accusing the government of spreading misinformation?”
Lucas responded: “The government are using a different variety of tactics for handling them, part of the reason why the number of asylum seekers has gone down is because it has been more difficult to claim asylum.
“You keep talking about people arriving in small boats, but you don’t speak about the overall number of undocumented migrants, which is not surging, which you don’t report.”
