82 Per Cent of Voters Think Boris Govt Is Handling Channel Migrant Crisis Badly

DUNGENESS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 04: A group of around 40 migrants arrive via the RNLI (Royal N
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

More than four-in-five voters think Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is handling the Channel migrant crisis badly, with more than three-quarters of Conservative Party supporters thinking the same.

The YouGov poll commissioned by The Times and released on Tuesday revealed that 82 per cent of Britons think that the government is handling the migrant crisis “badly”.

Even amongst Conservative voters, who may have been assumed to have some residual loyalty to the Tory Prime Minister, 77 per cent think that the Johnson administration is handling the crisis poorly. The English Channel has seen more than 25,000 illegals land on Britain’s shores since the beginning of this year, triple on last year.

The research was undertaken between the 24th and 25th of November, immediately after 27 migrants drowned in the English Channel off the coast of France while trying to illegally travel to Britain.

In terms of what is to blame for the rising numbers of illegals trying to get to the UK, however, the most popular belief, at 25 per cent, was “the French government’s handling of the issue”, with only ten per cent actually blaming the British government.

The plurality of those polled on three potential responses to dealing with the Channel crisis shows ordinary Britons to be hawkish on protecting their borders.

Majorities think that officials should “intercept migrant boats in the English Channel and turn them back towards France” (61 per cent agree) and that Britain should refuse to accept asylum applications from those who arrive illegally if they could “reasonably have claimed asylum in another safe country” (61 per cent).

A plurality at 47 per cent agreed that those wishing to claim asylum in the UK should be sent to a third country for processing, with just 33 per cent opposing.

The figures showing a high number blaming France for the crisis and support for anti-mass migration measures should signal to the Conservative Party that voters would back tough action in the Channel; but recent reports and remarks from politicians suggest that if Johnson fails to get the crisis under control, voters could turn on the prime minister and his government at the polling booth.

Earlier this month, a Conservative MP had told The Times that voters may perceive Johnson had not delivered Brexit if cannot show he has ‘Taken Back Control’ of the UK’s external borders, with another admitting that the out-of-control mass migration “is something that is going to be a vote loser”.

Labour, however, would likely perform no better in handling the crisis, according to the polls, with just 18 per cent thinking the left-wing party would handle the crisis move effectively.

Indeed, Lord David Blunkett, Tony Blair’s former home secretary in charge of borders and immigration, bluntly stated last week that if the Labour government makes the mass migration of alleged asylum seekers easier, voters may rebel against Labour, also, and “Nigel Farage might end up being prime minister”.

This week, Mr Farage accused the government of being “utterly rudderless” in its response to the migrant crisis. The Brexit leader has threatened that unless Johnson solves the “out of control” mass migration across the English Channel, he could make a return to frontline politics.

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