Reform Party deputy leader wildly suggests Britain should let migrants drown in ChannelTalkTV
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00:00The presumption in your question is that we have a duty of care to people who are seeking to enter our country illegally.
00:08We have a duty of care to people drowning in the channel, yes.
00:11Well, we only, by the way, under international law, Article 98 of the UN Convention of Law of the Sea,
00:18we only have an obligation to save people if it's reasonable to do so.
00:22And under the same international law, we have the right to turn people back who are seeking to enter our waters illegally.
00:28I understand, I love it, turning people back, but the point when they refuse to be turned back
00:33or someone just puts a knife into the dinghy and it starts deflating or they jump into the water
00:38because they've been told that's what you do and then you'll be picked up.
00:40You know as well as I do, anybody who has ever been on a boat will know that the rules of the sea are very clear.
00:45You have to save life where you can save life.
00:47Only if it's reasonable to do so.
00:50It will be reasonable to do so because there will be people drowning.
00:52No, I don't think it's reasonable.
00:54Are you genuinely saying the Reform UK policy is we will let people drown to make a point?
01:01Because I don't think that's what you're saying.
01:03No, Julia, if someone comes, let's not infantilise these people.
01:08They have free will. They were safe in France.
01:11They paid good money to get on a boat seeking illegally to come.
01:15So I'm not going to infantilise them and I'm not going to be held to ransom by their claim
01:20that they deserve protection as soon as they get into our territorial waters.
01:22I agree with all of that.
01:23At the point when they use the tactic of jumping into the sea and they're drowning,
01:28are you saying that British Border Force and British Navy will be instructed not to rescue those people from drowning?
01:34No, you didn't hear me.
01:35I said that we could, as an idea, provide them with another dinghy into which to climb
01:40and then go back to France and if they choose to scupper that dinghy,
01:43then yes, they have to suffer the consequences of their actions.
01:46Then you would leave them to drown?
01:49Absolutely, they cannot be infantilised to the point that we become a hostage to fortune.
01:53I have no doubt, Ben, that that is a policy that would work quite well.
01:57However, that is not a policy that a civilised country should endorse.
02:01Why is that uncivilised, Julia?
02:03Explain to me why.
02:04Because we don't need people to drown, because we're civilised human beings.