Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, questioned the PM about the £130 million tax deal made between Revenue & Customs and Google, to which the Cameron said: “The idea that those two right honourable gentlemen would stand up to anyone in this regard is laughable. Look at their record over the last week.
“They met with the unions and gave them flying pickets. They met with the Argentinians, they gave them the Falkland Islands. They met with a bunch of migrants in Calais, they said they could all come to Britain. The only people they never stand up for are the British people and hardworking taxpayers.”
Even the ‘bunch of’ Conservative benches went silent, dropping in tone; a careless remark by the PM.
A spokesperson for the Labour leader has said: “The people that we saw in Calais and Dunkirk at the weekend – families, kids, babies – I don’t think it’s right to refer to them as a ‘bunch of migrants’.”
Chuka Umunna, Labour MP, said the comment was “dehumanizing,” while labour MP Diane Abbott said it was “callous”.
A spokes person for D.Cameron replied to accusations of ‘inflamotory and dehumanizing rhetoric’: “The point the PM was making was that he very strongly disagrees with the approach that Labour are now taking, which is to allow people from Calais into Britain, to open the doors to migrants. That will only make the situation in Calais much worse. It will produce a huge draw to Calais.
“No country in Europe has done more to help migrants affected by the conflict in Syria. We’ve given nearly £1.2bn [to agencies dealing with the crisis] and that is going to food, shelter and education for hundreds of thousands of people in refugee camps.”
Katie Hopkins came to the PMs aid by suggesting that “75% don’t want migrants” and therefore justifying Cameron’s use of language: “Dismissive language is called for,” she said on LBC radio.