Home Secretary Sajid Javid has insisted that an average of four migrants reaching our shores by boat each day is a national crisis deserving of his personal time and energy, not like the 3,500 people who will be forced to use food banks today and are probably fine anyway.
Javid has come in for some unwarranted criticism just because he’s acted like a political opportunist, rather than doing something to help the people who live here in awful conditions often due to no fault of their own.
He explained, “As one of the wealthiest nations of earth, it’s important I am out here on the high seas preventing a handful of asylum seekers reaching our country by boat, instead of doing something about the 1.3 million emergency food packages that were distributed by food banks last year to the desperate people who live in poverty in this country.
“I only have so much time in the day, and so it’s important I focus on the areas in which I can make the most difference, and I can make a huge difference to my popularity by being photographed on a boat looking for migrants, rather than doing something about rising food bank usage.
“If you’re out there struggling to put food in the mouths of your children, do you want me sat in my comfortable office trying to solve that problem for you, or would you rather I was being photographed for the front page of all the newspapers talking about the handful of migrants who make it across the channel?
“It’s me being on the front page, isn’t it. See, I know my voters.”