BBC Newsnight row erupts as Reform UK's Laila Cunningham destroys left-wing comic in migrant clash: 'Don't put words in my mouth!'

However, the temperature of the show heated up a notch when the conversation turned towards Reform UK and Nigel Farage, with the party leader's relationship with former MEP Nathan Gill prompting a stern defence from Ms Cunningham.

Mr Chawawa, who regularly uses his social media platform to target Reform and its supporters through comedy skits, then decided to quiz Ms Cunningham directly over her party's stance and messaging, particularly when it came to illegal immigration.

"Look, generally speaking, we know that Reform is operating with a populist strategy," Mr Chawawa began. "Which essentially, to me, translates as: say the most popular thing — which is often the simplest thing — to very nuanced debates, get people on side, and then iron through the creases once it’s already too late.

"Now, I would love to ask both of you about — especially you, Layla — so whenever I see you on screen, it’s a very weaponised politics.

"It’s about identifying an enemy: if we get X group out, then we will no longer have coverage."

"Who have we identified?" Ms Cunningham asked, prompting Mr Chawawa to reply: "Okay, so talk to me about immigration.

"So, when I’ve seen you talking about clips where we’re hearing the word Ethiopians and racists and we’re tarring-" Mr Chawawa claimed before correcting himself to say "rapists."

"Yes — because there have been illegal migrants who have been allowed into this country that have gone on to sexually assault girls, correct," Ms Cunningham defiantly said.

Mr Chawawa attempted to ask why Reform was supposedly "tarring" all Ethiopians with the term, but Ms Cunningham stood firm.

"Hang on, hang on," she intervened. "I’m sorry, but when you allow people — unvetted men — into our country, who we have no idea what their history is, and you put them in a town or village, and you subject them to young girls who are walking the street, and they end up raping a girl or sexually assaulting a girl — of course I’m going to call it out.

"Would you not think it’s right to call it out?" she asked, to which Mr Chawawa answered: "Why is it not enough to say, let’s take measures on immigration?

"The minute you start referencing specific groups, the association in people’s minds is: if I encounter an Ethiopian... this is now the people we’re talking about!

"We just spent the whole time on this show talking about Prince Andrew, and yet I’ve never heard you say, 'Abolish the royals'. You can treat it as a case study."

Ms Cunningham fired back: "The royals are a part of Britain. We are importing rapists and terrorists into this country through our open borders. You cannot deny that.

"How many rapes is too much for you to say it’s not okay? How many rapes would you accept?"

The comic dodged the question. "This is my question to you, right? We are talking about instances," he said.

"We know that there are rapists in Britain, right? Already here. You’ve described them as homegrown rapists before. That is very different.

"The 'homegrown rapist' — that’s almost a juxtaposition. It doesn’t make any sense as a term of condemnation, right?"

A perplexed Ms Cunningham interjected: "Yes, of course it does. Any rapist is condemned by me. I was a criminal prosecutor, and I’m a mother of daughters, and I’m a woman myself. Of course they are. Don’t put words into my mouth.

"But we have homegrown rapists. That does not excuse us from importing more and putting them in towns and villages. I’m sorry, I’m not going to back down from that position, and I think you’ll find most of the British public completely disagrees with you.

"And if that certain rapist that I mentioned happened to be Ethiopian, then yes, I’m not going to shy away from saying that he was Ethiopian — because that’s what happened with the Pakistani rape gangs.

"People didn’t want to say where they were from, and it was happy that they proliferated."

"Yes, but you’re applying it to a wide group," Mr Chawawa protested, but an undeterred Ms Cunningham responded: "No, I’m applying it to illegal migrants who are allowed into this country. That is not a wide group; that is a specific group."

"But it’s not all illegal migrants," Mr Chawawa again tried to protest. "How do you know? Are they vetted? How do you know?" Ms Cunningham probed.

She pressed further: "How do you know every man crossing on that boat is not a rapist or a terrorist?"

"Just to be clear, you don’t know?" Mr Chorley eventually interjected, but Ms Cunningham once again stood her ground.

"No, I don’t know, but I’m not going to give them the benefit of the doubt, because they have thrown their passports, they’ve entered this country illegally, so I will treat them as criminals, yes," she fired back.

After the clip was circulated on social media, it's safe to say several felt Ms Cunningham made some very valid points.

"Brilliant, @policylaila destroys him," GB News regular Adam Brooks said, while another X user added: "Laila was fantastic."

Another weighed in: "The point she is making - which is 100% correct - unvetted and unknown people entering the country are a potential threat. Of course this is true - why do we have passports and visas in the first place? For this exact reason - for National Security."

Just 0.5-1 % of illegal migrants are prosecuted. Successive governments have decriminalised illegal entry into our country. That’s an unacceptable betrayal of our safety.

For those who’d never make it through Heathrow, the boats are a guaranteed way in.
The Uniparty needs to be… pic.twitter.com/VgCD0CwG4C

— Laila Cunningham (@policylaila) October 18, 2025

Meanwhile, a fourth added: "Laila really getting to the heart of how we all feel. When it comes to illegals we’re not giving them benefit of the doubt because we haven’t been able to get them in the way you would legal migration that you’ve consented to."

"Laila f***ing destroyed him & his far-left argument," a fifth echoed before a sixth typed: "Munya Chawawa was utterly destroyed."

And another argued: "His argument is the same stuff we’ve heard for years ‘what about the white ones’.

"As if that’s a reason to ignore the problem of importing more. Last time I checked more of a bad thing is bad."