Grant Shapps has defended Suella Braverman after she drew comparisons with notorious racist Enoch Powell following her warning that a "hurricane" of migration is coming.
Ms Braverman was accused of using vulnerable people as "cannon fodder" in her Tory Party conference speech yesterday. The Home Secretary's claim that the "wind of change" that brought her parents to the UK was a "mere gust" compared to what's on the way.
It has earned comparisons with Powell's infamous 1968 "rivers of blood" speech, with veteran MP Diane Abbott saying: "Enoch Powell got thrown out the Tory party for rhetoric like Braverman’s. Instead she gets rapturous applause from the Tory faithful."
Ms Braverman's remarks have been compared to Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech against immigration (Getty Images)But the Defence Secretary hit back, telling Times Radio: "She makes the absolutely correct point we've already seen a lot of movement... we could see a lot more, a hurricane, as she describes it, of people moving."
Asked about comparisons to Powell's speech, he said: "So many people are from immigrant backgrounds in this country. I think I'm third generation myself... Suella's first generation, her parents came over in the 60s. So this is certainly no Enoch Powell situation, is it, to make the very obvious point."
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Ms Braverman told delegates the Government had been too "squeamish" about being labelled racist in a wide-ranging diatribe that sparked an immediate backlash. She said: "The wind of change that carried my own parents across the globe in the 20th century was a mere gust compared to the hurricane that is coming."
And the cabinet member, widely tipped as a future party leader, went on: "In poll after poll, the British public have been clear: immigration is already too high. And they know another thing. That the future could bring millions more migrants to these shores."
Ms Braverman also came under attack after blaming Labour for the asylum system chaos, saying: "And it is Labour that turbocharged their impact by passing the misnamed Human Rights Act. I am surprised they didn’t call it the Criminal Rights Act."
Natasha Tsangarides, associate director of advocacy at charity Freedom from Torture, said: "Despite a cost-of-living crisis and collapsing public services, she continues to use marginalised groups as cannon fodder to win cheap political points.
“Instead of showboating and scaremongering, the Home Secretary should be focusing all her efforts on rebuilding the asylum system so that we can be confident we are providing protection to those who need it.
"We’ve seen the backlog grow under her stewardship, with over 175,000 people living in limbo. These are men, women and children who have fled the most unimaginable horrors and are just trying to rebuild their lives in peace.”
And Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Suella Braverman's speech was devoid of practical policies and divorced from the reality of Tory failure over the last 13 years.
"She had nothing to say about the knife crime killing our children, the epidemic of town centre crime undermining our communities or the collapse in prosecutions under the Tories which means more criminals are getting off.
"Nor did she mention the 1000 people who have arrived on small boats since Tory conference started, all because she has totally lost control of border security."
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