Minister defends Lee Anderson over ‘robust’ comments on migrants shunning barge

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has defended Lee Anderson after the Conservative Party deputy chairman said asylum seekers complaining about the Bibby Stockholm barge should ‘f*** off back to France’. Mr Chalk said the ‘indignation’ of the Ashfield MP was ‘well placed’ after just 15 migrants entered the floating accommodation off the Dorset coast on Monday. The Government has said the barge, which was initially designed to fit about 200 people, has a 500-person capacity. Lee Anderson expresses the righteous indignation of the British people. Yes, he does it in salty terms, that’s his style, but his indignation is well placed Justice Secretary Alex Chalk But the transfer of migrants on to the vessel has been mired in difficulty and delays amid safety concerns, local opposition and legal challenges. Mr Chalk told LBC: ‘Lee Anderson expresses the righteous indignation of the British people. Yes, he does it in salty terms, that’s his style, but his indignation is well placed.’ The Justice Secretary said France is a safe country and a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights. ‘ People should claim asylum in the first country – it’s not like there should be an open shopping list of where you want to go,’ he said. ‘He expresses himself in his characteristically robust terms but there is a lot of sense, in my respectful view, in what Lee says.’ On those complaining about the accommodation, Mr Anderson told Express.co.uk: ‘If they don’t like barges then they should f*** off back to France.’ He added: ‘I think people have just had enough. ‘These people come across the Channel in small boats… if they don’t like the conditions they are housed in here then they should go back to France, or better not come at all in the first place.’ Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, currently an Independent MP, wrote on Twitter: ‘A new low even for the Tories.’