Minister calls for Holocaust survivor to be listened to after Suella Braverman refuses to apologise for immigration 'invasion' rhetoric

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said it was ‘incredibly important’ incredibly important to listen to Joan Salter, 83, who challenged the use of the word ‘invasion’ when discussing illegal migration. A video of the exchange circulated by human rights charity Freedom From Torture has gone viral.

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Ms Salter likened the Fareham MP’s rhetoric discussing migrants crossing the English Channel to that of the Nazis – used to ‘demonise people coming to this country.’ She was three months old when Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, fleeing with her mother and sister to France before being fostered in America and eventually reuniting with her family in London.

Ms Braverman thanked Ms Salter for her question during the constituency meeting, but said she ‘won’t apologise’ for claiming there is ‘an invasion’ on the south coast.

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Mr Jenrick, who serves under Ms Braverman in the Home Office, said he backed his boss’s ‘point’ but appeared not to support her choice of words on immigration. He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I think in politics we all have to choose our language carefully and think of the historical language that has been used in the past when we frame arguments. I did listen to the video from that Holocaust survivor and I think it is incredibly important that we listen and take account of those testimonies.’

Mr Jenrick added there is a ‘significant difference’ between people who come to the UK through persecution and human rights abuses, to those who ‘come gaming the system for economic reasons’.