Zack Polanski Slams Labour For Its Approach To Migration

Zack Polanski accused Labour of being a “government of cowards” for allegedly not “telling the truth about migration”.

During BBC Question Time’s Immigration Special, the Green Party leader said the issue was “personal” to him.

He explained how his Jewish great-grandparents fled Latvia and then Ukraine because of pogroms, before being forced out of Nazi-occupied Poland, too.

He said: “This is what people have done throughout history. They have fled because they’ve moved because of war or persecution.

“Or they’ve moved because of people they love, or they want to travel.”

Presenter Fiona Bruce then asked if Polanski stood by his party’s policy of a world without borders, essentially meaning anyone who wants to come to the UK can come.

He replied: “Yes, in the ideal world, that is the policy I want.

“I recognise that we are not in an ideal world. The world is in turmoil. We have huge issues in our country.

“But the issues with the National Health Service, the issues with the lack of council homes, the issues with the society feeling broken and not the issue of migrants or someone clinging to a small boat.

“They are the issue of 14 years of Conservative austerity continued by a Labour government who say this is an island of strangers.”

Keir Starmer was accused of echoing right-wing former Tory MP Enoch Powell in May when he claimed the UK risks “becoming an island of strangers” during a crackdown on illegal immigration.

He has since admitted to regretting that phrasing, but Labour has continued to stamp down on migration by speeding up deportations.

Pointing at migration minister Mike Tapp who also sat on the Question Time panel, Polanski said: “Actually you’re a government of cowards, because you won’t tell people the truth about migration.

“The truth about migration [is] it is a positive thing for the country, we need migration, we need fair and managed migration, and that is what will change this conversation.”