'Inflammatory': UK interior minister Suella Braverman slammed over migrant 'invasion' remark
British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been accused of using inflammatory language after describing the arrival of asylum seekers on England's southern coast as an "invasion".
Her comments in parliament on Monday came a day after a man used fire bombs to attack an immigration processing centre in the port town of Dover.
The number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats has soared this year, putting enormous pressure on border staff, facilities and the system dealing with their claims.
"The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not," Braverman, the British interior minister, told the House of Commons in response to opposition criticism.
"Some 40,000 people have arrived on the south coast this year alone. Many of them facilitated by criminal gangs, some of them actual members of criminal gangs. So, let's stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress."
Robert Jenrick, an immigration minister in Braverman's department, appeared to distance himself from her language.
"I think in my role you have to choose your terminology wisely and we don't want to see incidents like the one that occurred in Dover happen again," he said on Tuesday. But he claimed his boss's words reflected the scale of the challenge.
Yvette Cooper, the home affairs spokeswoman for the opposition Labour Party, said the rhetoric had deteriorated in line with the government's performance.
"No Home Secretary who was serious about public safety or national security would use highly inflammatory language on the day after a dangerous petrol bomb attack," she said.
"To describe the serious and complex situation created by the asylum crisis as an “invasion” is
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