A Sky News debate was compared to a “bunch of kids rowing at the dinner table” as one audience member confronted gathered MPs
An immigration debate on Sky News turned frosty (Image: Sky News)
Sky News aired its Immigration Debate special last night (September 10), with Labour’s newly appointed defence secretary Mike Tapp, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf, Conservative shadow justice secretary Keiran Mullan and Lib Dem home affairs spokeswoman Lisa Smart all joining the panel. The MPs, anchored by host Trevor Phillips, took questions from the live studio audience.
But things quickly went wrong when Kara from Nottingham was allowed to ask her question, putting to MPs: “There’s a large amount of racist protests going on regarding hotel asylums. I think it’s more than 0.1%, but we’ll agree to disagree. I was basically just wondering, where do we draw the line? If we were to reduce immigration, or stop it altogether, would we then stop getting involved in other countries’ political scenarios?
“Because we were all for immigration when the war broke out in Ukraine and Russia. But we’re not with Gaza and Palestine?”
Kara’s question went ignored (Image: Sky News)
But the question was completely swerved by Mullan, who reverted back to answer a query from a previous audience member, Diane. Leaving Kara laughing in the crowd as she shook her head, he forged ahead: “If I could just pick upon Diane’s really important question… The first thing to say is the actual number of people crossing has gone up, it’s higher, it’s at record levels- The number of people in hotels is higher than it was when Labour took office.”
He went on: “Those are the facts about what happened since Labour took office. You’ve asked a question about how we stop people crossing, in practical terms I think if a dinghy is out in the ocean and we were to intercept it and that topples over and people drown, I don’t think that’s an outcome we want.”
Kara raised her hand once more after Diane was allowed to say her piece, pressing: “Well as you’ve already said, I’ve travelled down from Nottingham, so while I understand Diane deserves full opportunity to respond to their answers, I would appreciate some respect in answering the question that I’ve asked, not choosing to answer the question that you wanted to answer.”
Ministers chose to respond to Diane instead (Image: Sky News)
She was applauded by the audience – but viewers at home weren’t quite as impressed. One social media user tweeted: “Privileged lefty student activist, stamping her feet…”
Another posted: “Sky you’re finished!” as someone else echoed: “Kara’s expression of entitlement says it all for me.”
However, others leapt to defend her, with one writing: “She shouldn’t feel too bad, politicians don’t answer questions they’ve been asked by the professional interviewers.”
Another posted: “She’s a feisty and confident young lady… a perfect candidate for the Labour Party.” While a third agreed: “She requested an answer to her question which was ignored!”
