To agree with Andy Burnham that it’s about time the middle classes took their fair share

[Morningteacup2]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/08/11/burnham-middle-class-areas-must-take-more-hotel-migrants/

Not a huge fan of Labour I must say, but this is well overdue!

Why do we have to have unwanted immigrants? Most are economic migrants, which is why they are mostly male.

Yes, but are Afghan or Syrian men working in care homes? Or even if they have legal status, their wives or daughters? Why is there such high unemployment in Bangladeshi/Pakistani communities when care homes are crying out for people?

Ti be fair, I have seen sub-Saharan men working in local closed mental facilities.

They should never have been allowed in, in the first place. You wouldn't give a random man a bedroom in your house, and then debate how to evict him, would you?

Tug boats should drag every single dinghy back to France, and the Navy should be on our beaches to catch any stragglers. Within a few weeks, no one would pay to take the journey.

But no. We give them a little guide book, a mobile phone, some money, and take them to a lovely hotel. FUCKING STUPID.

What utter drivel.

How does that help the young woman raped in her local park by someone that shouldn't even be here and then we pay for the pleasure of housing him for years in prison? Or the woman in agony because she has to wait three years for a hip operation because the hospitals are full? Or the young family in a bed sit for years because we have no housing stock left?

What evidence do you have that these supposedly “invisible” men are dealing ketamine, supplying stolen cars and trafficking women? You can't say they're absent from the statistics and then simultaneously claim to know what they're doing. That's prejudice presented as fact.

A few destroyers in the Channel should do it - if we have any ships left at all!

They aren't - you can check the list of eligible occupations here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-eligible-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-eligible-occupations-and-codes Anything that is 'higher skilled' is eligible for a skilled worker visa. Anything that is 'medium skilled' or lower is currently ineligible.

Vape shops, barbers, and nail bars use either people who are in the UK legally by other means (e.g. approved refugee status) or, very frequently, people who are working illegally or (in the case of nail bars) modern-day slaves (trafficked women).

Only approved employers can sponsor a skilled worker visa. These are typically large corporates and the NHS.

https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/international-students-entering-the-uk-labour-market/

The care discussion around immigration both legal and not legal is important. I think that with an ageing population and care needs it is fine to channel people there including indigenous people on benefits.
If historically a lot of people went into retail/hospitality but now they go into care, so what.

I do think it is a legitimate question to ask whether unskilled largely male illegals are likely to be a good fit for care work. Unlikely. However, we do also as a country have construction needs, en masse. The Government should be channeling those who get legal status there and have a plan to do so that is clear.

I think this is the perfect moment for all labour politicians to show us the way and say..

Me first...we will have an hmo with 50 men on our street...and I have young daughters and we have faith in the checks done on these men and we feel safe end we will prove it by accomodating them close to our house

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/55329-britons-have-a-more-negative-view-of-immigration-in-2026-than-in-2016

😂😂😂😂😂

If, for one second, I believed this to be true-who paid for all their degrees and training?

Was England unable to put forward one native person who could have benefitted from the massive privilege they were given?

How? Fire on dinghies full of unarmed civilians? You really know nothing about the armed forces if you think any Naval officer would issue an order to do that.

Many of these men come from misogynistic cultures, but I would support those who have a genuine reason for our support, e.g. Aghans who worked with the British army. But then you read something like this...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04kx3y7e6ro

What I don't understand, with any immigrants who commit serious crimes, why do they risk being imprisoned or deported? This applies especially to those who have risked life and limb, and probably their life savings, being smuggled across continents and then arriving in small boats.

why do you think asylum seekers are uneducated/ unqualified? The PP only mentioned one of the four going to university here.
And “native”? Really?

The destroyers would return the boats to France. Again and again and again. The end.

In WW2 this country had sea defences and an air force and the Germans were unable to invade. Incredible to think of that now.

That's like saying you have no objection to people driving cars, but you have a huge problem with anyone driving cars that can't fly. It's virtually impossible to be an asylum seeker in this country without first becoming an 'illegal immigrant'. No one wants the dangerous situation of boat crossings, but to stop this, we need viable alternative systems to allow people to become asylum seekers.

The asylum seekers are already in ‘middle class’ areas. I live in a village where the hotel has housed them for five years. There are some families but also many men of all ages hanging around the streets.

You are taking completely separate problems and conveniently attributing all of them to immigration.

Of course any woman raped in a park deserves justice, and if the offender has no legal right to remain here then he should face the criminal justice system and, where legally possible, deportation. But why are you using one horrific crime to characterise an entire population?

The actual picture of sexual violence is rather different from the stranger-in-the-park scenario you've chosen. ONS figures show that among victims of rape or assault by penetration, the perpetrator was far more commonly a partner or ex-partner than a stranger. Sexual violence against women was a serious problem in Britain long before small boats became today's political obsession.

As for the NHS, perhaps we should also look at ourselves. Adult obesity in England has risen from 15% in 1993 to 29% in 2022, and nearly two-thirds of adults are now overweight or living with obesity. Our population is also ageing. Pretending that a woman is waiting three years for a hip operation simply because “the hospitals are full of immigrants” is an extraordinary oversimplification of the problems facing the NHS.

And the housing shortage? Britain has made political decisions about housebuilding and social housing over decades. People arriving on boats didn't travel back in time and make those decisions for us.

By all means argue for controlled immigration, secure borders and the removal of people who have no legal right to remain. Those are perfectly legitimate positions. But blaming migrants for rape, NHS waiting lists and decades of inadequate housing policy isn't a serious analysis of any of those problems.

Perhaps they're not paying out of their own pocket to come here. Perhaps enemy countries are funding it. Perhaps countries who want rid of problematic prisoners want rid of them.

Unfortunately a good few migrants are criminals, either evading justice or merrily helped on their way.

A while ago Albania had a prisoner amnesty. They gave them a passport and waved them goodbye. Good for Albania and bad for Italy and beyond. Apparently Morocco has the same idea… pointing them towards Ceuta.

The pp is right the idea of ‘flattering’ in the context of the initial post is poor.

I'm sure if the Russians turned up something would swiftly be done.

Bombing "the crap out of these places" would lead to more refugees fleeing, as well as being in breach of international law.

The problem is, very few people think desperate people paying criminal gangs to smuggle them across the channel is a good thing. But all of the sensible options to limit this are dismissed by a segment of the population who just want to see the Royal Navy drown people. Or who just want to see stricter conditions in detention centres (because 3 meals a day is ridiculous luxury apparently). Or who have weird fantasies about ElSalvador because they saw a documentary about the prison service. The punishment is the point.
But when you point out that drowning people isn't a viable option you open yourself up to being called a typical lefty who wants women to get raped because you hate this country. And also, accused of "demonising" the pro-drowning brigade

I have many problems with Starmer but he did seem to have significantly reduced the number of small boats arriving in the UK in the short time in office. Since this was done in a boring way that didn't involve the Royal Navy murdering people, it is an inconvenient fact that can be ignored. And I am sure the patriots on the thread will be crossing their fingers that the downward trend in boat crossings doesn't continue.

ok. Indigenous then...suit you better?

Thank you, by making an example of yourself, for letting me know that there are still those amongst us who believe that the boats are full of psychiatrists, surveyors, teachers and budding archaeologists.

If it wasn't for people like you prepared to stick your hand up and declare yourself a bit silly, I really wouldn't have believed that people were still swallowing this shite.