Tory MP blasts Labour Party for ‘cagey’ argument for ‘open borders’

Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay has accused the Labour Party of providing ‘caged’ arguments over the migrant crisis, masking their alleged desire for ‘open borders’. Mr Mackinlay suggested the opposition were calling for safe routes, which he believed meant ‘a lot more people’ would come to the UK. While Suella Braverman suffers the fallout from describing the crisis as an ‘invasion’ on Monday, her Labour counterpart Yvette Cooper suggested her language was indicative of a home secretary with no answers to the problem. But pressed on Sunday on what Labour’s policies would be, Ms Cooper limited her response to a need to ‘speed up’ the asylum application process and open up negotiations with France, the latter of which was initiated by the Conservative Government after Rishi Sunak reportedly spoke at length to French President Emmanuel Macron about solutions to the crisis. Mr Mackinlay said: ‘I wish that Labour would be honest with people, and many of the charity groups, and all the rest of the plethora of people who are always very supportive of migrants and refugees welcome here, and all all the rest of it, why don’t they be honest with us and say they want open borders for Britain. ‘Then we could have a debate about that. But they cage their arguments in strange ways. They want open borders. ‘I think people need to understand that that is what Labour increasingly stands for because I hear very little robust language about these numbers coming in and how we are meant to deal with them. ‘All they go on about is, ‘Oh, we need safe routes’. Well, I do not know what that really means. Safe routes mean a lot more people in my language.’  Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay accused the Labour Party of “caging” their immigration arguments (Image: TALKTV ) Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has offered limited ideas to solve the migrant crisis (Image: BBC )Home secretary Suella Braverman, reappointed to her cabinet role six days after she resigned for breaking the ministerial code while serving former prime minister Liz Truss, has faced increasing calls to resign again. After it was reported on the weekend that overcrowding at a processing centre in Kent, caused in part by Ms Braverman’s refusal to permit some of the occupants to be moved, caused outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies, critics have questioned her ability to handle the crisis. The home secretary was also forced to deny claims that she ignored legal advice and rejected calls by officials to procure more hotel accommodation for migrants amid mounting concern about the situation at Manston.READ MORE: Sally Nugent shut down by Jenrick in BBC Breakfast clash [REPORT]  Suella Braverman branded the migration of asylum seekers to the UK as an “invasion” (Image: GETTY )In response to Ms Braverman’s use of the phrase ‘invasion’, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper accused Ms Braverman of ramping up her rhetoric because she had no answers to the problems.’No home secretary serious about public safety or national security would use the language Suella Braverman did the day after a petrol bomb attack on a Dover centre,’ Ms Cooper said. ‘But that’s the point. She isn’t serious about any of those things.’ But when BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg pressed the shadow home secretary for her own solution, remarking that on the topic of immigration it was ‘easy to criticise, harder to solve’, Ms Cooper offered a limited response. Ms Cooper said: ‘Well, I think what you have got to do is overhaul the whole system and have much stronger action to prevent the dangerous boats crossing the Channel that are putting lives at risk in the first place and you have got to speed up the whole system.’ DON’T MISS: MP warns Channel migrants face ‘lottery’ between Kent hotel and Rwanda [REPORT] Braverman blasts £6.8million taxpayers’ bill for migrant hotel rooms [REVEAL] ‘British people have had enough of our out of control border system’ [OPINION]  Some 39,913 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year, (Image: MOD )She said the decision making processes on asylum seekers had ‘collapsed’. She added that a ‘new agreement with France’ and a ‘significant increase’ in the activities of the National Crime Agency were needed to tackle the ‘proliferation of organised criminal activity’ in and around the Channel. Some 39,913 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel so far this year, provisional Government figures show. The Ministry of Defence recorded 46 people arriving in one boat on Monday.READ NEXT: Man who threw petrol bombs at Dover migrant centre was 66-year-old’Serial offender’ Suella Braverman should be sacked for security leaksDangerous overcrowding at Manston asylum centre ‘done deliberately’Migrants to share hotels with members of the publicMan attacks Dover migrant centre by ‘hurling petrol bombs’