Suella Braverman declares ‘solidarity’ with Portsmouth locals over migrant crisis: ‘This has to be a turning point!’

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The Reform MP said Britons were 'at the end of their tether, rightly so'

Suella Braverman has declared solidarity with those “at the end of their tether” over the migrant crisis amid protests in Portsmouth.

The Reform MP spoke to GB News as tensions boiled over across the south coast of England, with protests erupting over small boat migrant landings in Dover and Portsmouth.

Over the weekend, hundreds of protestors descended on sites where illegal migrants, fresh from crossing the Channel and breaking into Britain, were being processed before being dispersed around the country.

Demonstrators clashed with police as some attempted to block roads, prompting the Labour Government to brand the scenes as “intimidation and thuggery”.

It came as a record-breaking mega dinghy made the furthest ever distance from France, 200 nautical miles from the traditional launch sites around Dunkirk and Calais.

Rejecting the Government’s condemnation, Mrs Braverman was “absolutely furious” and “terrified” by the arrival of migrants in the area.

“I’m here to express my solidarity with those local people who are at the end of their tether, rightly, with this failure on our borders,” she said.

The Reform MP insisted that “no one should be using any violence or any vandalism. I don't support the wearing of balaclavas”.

Nevertheless, she reiterated: “I stand 100 per cent in solidarity with those local people who are furious, who are angry, who are feeling desperate.”

The former Home Secretary warned that recent developments showed the crisis was no longer isolated to Kent, adding that the “invasion has reached Portsmouth”.

“I’m afraid this is not the last that we’ve seen of illegal migrants arriving in Portsmouth,” Mrs Braverman said.

The Reform MP also rejected calls for a new migrant processing centre in the area, declaring: “We don’t have the facilities, we don’t have the space, and we certainly don’t have the appetite to be accommodating indefinitely illegal migrants here in Portsmouth or anywhere else in Hampshire.”

“Any fool could have told the Government that this is what would happen, that there’ll be displacement along the French coast.”

She said migrants were now taking “longer journeys on bigger boats in more treacherous conditions” in an attempt to reach Britain.

“What we're seeing now is these illegal migrants taking longer journeys on bigger boats in more treacherous conditions, just to get to the UK by hook or by crook.

“That's how desperate they are, because they know that once they get to the UK, we’re a soft touch and have no border control; they can get into the UK indefinitely.”

To that end, Ms Braverman said the Government’s approach to the Channel crisis had to change.

“This is an utter catastrophe for the Government, and this has to be a turning point. If not now, when is the Government going to actually get serious about the crisis on our borders?”

Defending Labour’s approach on GB News this morning, Minister Emma Reynolds insisted Channel crossings were down 43 per cent compared with the same point last year.

“Under the Conservative government, 77 per cent of asylum claims were successful,” she said.

“Under our government in the last two years, only 38 per cent have been successful.”

Nevertheless, she acknowledged that people smugglers were “shifting their tactics to the western French beaches”.