'Playing politics' - Fylde MP Andrew Snowden slams Prime Minister Andy Burnham's immigration plans

Fylde MP Andrew Snowden has responded to criticism after he posted a video about an increase in asylum seekers and what he calls ‘illegal immigrants’ being housed in Fylde and Wyre.

The Conservative MP was responding to Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s suggestions that wealthier areas of the UK should house more asylum seekers, telling GB News that ‘we cannot have a situation where it's only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers’.

In response, Mr Snowden posted a video on his social channels with a written caption which read: “More illegal immigrants heading here? Burnham says areas like ours should house more illegal immigrants and asylum seekers. This is playing politics and will cost the tax payer a fortune.”

In the clip, which is geared towards encouraging people to fill out his survey on local opinions to be passed on to Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch, he says: “You are not going to believe this. Andy Burnham has come and just said that he thinks that areas like Fylde and Wyre should be housing more illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

“Not only is it just playing politics to try and shift thee people being housed in Labour-controlled areas to being housed in Conservative-controlled areas, which we can all see straight through, [but] it’s going to cost the taxpayer a fortune.

“Do you not think that renting and buying properties to house them around here isn’t going to cost the taxpayer a load more cash? Plus we have less police, less public services, so resources are going to have to be diverted here to cope with the extra demand.

“Andy Burnham should be spending less time faffing about over trying to move the problem around and more time trying to stop the problem, which is stopping people arriving illegally on beaches down in the South of England. And, crikey, we all thought Starmer was bad.”

Evidently, the video - viewed over 123,000 times - caused a certain degree of rancour, because Mr Snowden was moved to post a follow-up responding to a host of both criticism and support for his strident language.

In the follow-up video - itself viewed almost 340,000 times - he says: “Well, that video on Burnham’s immigration announcements yesterday I put up has caused a bit of a stir, so I just wanted to clarify some things. There have been some of the usual comments around ‘oh, you can’t call them illegal immigrants’ and ‘they’re all genuine asylum seekers, we should be housing them everywhere.’

“In my view, let’s just be really clear. If you arrive on a small boat from France, you’re entering our country illegally, because the last time I checked, France is not a war-torn country. People are arriving on our shores without our permission illegally and, as far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t be having a conversation about where we move them around in the country.

“We should be having a conversation about which country we deport them to after we’ve detained them. Yes, we should always process genuine asylum claims where people arrive legally with permission but, in this case, if you’re arriving here without permission, then you don’t have a right to stay in our country.

“It’s a simple as that. Agree with me or disagree with me