Esther McVey has said offering brand new houses to migrants will encourage more people to come to the UK.
Speaking on GB News, she said: “You’ve got to stop any pull factors, you’ve got to put deterrence there.
“Well, I’ll tell you one thing, offering people a brand new house is not going to stop anybody coming here, they’re going to be rubbing their hands and having a laugh.
“This is outrageous, no two ways about it. I’ve just spoken to the local MP, Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP, and he said the local community agreed to these houses being built because they thought they were affordable houses for them.
“It’s in a very rural, isolated area. There is no public transport, hardly any public services. So what? Are we going to be giving them cars? Are we going to give them taxis or chauffeuring them around?
“This is not right. We do not want people coming to our country. You say detained, yes, and deported, yes; not living the high life.
“They must look at this and think, I have gone to heaven. I’m looking at those houses, they are amazing. And you’ve got what, over 7,000 people on the social housing list, who’ve been there for years.
“All these people are higher priority: veterans, people with kids, people who are working, and yet these people have come in and been put in there.
“I’d have died for one of those houses when I was starting off. They’ve probably got air conditioning!
“I don’t believe all of these are asylum seekers either. They’re ushering them through, giving them a title, staying in the country. If they’ve broken into our country they’re not. If they’ve passed through various safe countries on the way here, they’re not.
“They are people who are coming here, economic migrants because they’re getting given an easy ride, particularly under this Labour government.
“They’ve gone from a hotel room to a brand new house. What a disaster.
“What they’re doing now is trying to drift them into all communities right across the country. The numbers coming in on illegal crossings has shot up. We need to stop them, we need to deport them.
“But most of all we certainly can’t just be allowing them to stay in the country as asylum seekers.”
