David Lammy has been accused of "gaslighting" and delivering "word salads" to the public after he appeared on TV on Tuesday to address the government's latest attempt to "smash the gangs".
Under the Labour government's plans, gang leaders, companies supplying small boats, fake passport dealers, and middlemen who facilitate payments will be named in public for the first time as part of new people-smuggling sanctions.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hopes the threat and implementations of sanctions will disrupt small boat crossings in the English Channel and ease the ever-increasing pressure he and the government are facing from the British public.
As part of the plans, dozens of individuals and entities are tipped to be hit with asset freezes, travel bans, and restrictions. However, critics have claimed it will do little to deter those behind the people-smuggling enterprises.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Lammy spoke to Kate Garraway and former Labour politician Ed Balls about the sanctions and attempted to explain their benefit.
However, the fact that Lammy was outlining the government's plans from the comfort of a studio just hours after GB News' very own Patrick Christys reported back from Calais, France, in person, resulted in an outpouring of anger from viewers.
During the interview, Garraway asked: "So we know about the campaign to smash the gangs. Why is the Foreign Office doing this, and who will it be targeting specifically? What kind of number of individuals do you think will be named and dealt with, with this?"
Lammy replied, unchallenged: "Well, you're right. This is usually the Home Office that deals with issues to do with immigration, but actually, the Foreign Office does have a lot to do with immigration.
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|ITV GMB: David Lammy outlined his hopes for the sanctions plan on Tuesday
"It's the Foreign Office that often does work in countries to help people stay in those countries and not migrate in the first place. It's the Foreign Office that organises returning people to the countries they're from if they have no right to be here.
"And the Foreign Office has a big sanctions regime that many of your viewers will have heard about over many, many years. We've used it very, very well to bear down on Putin and the Russian Shadow Fleet in the last few years, and to encourage Europe to follow us and do more in tandem with us.
"When I went to the National Crime Agency and they showed me the rubber dinghies, they showed me where the engines came from, they showed me the network of smugglers and criminals, the mafia engaged in the smuggling of people, sometimes even in the smuggling of guns and drugs...
"I decided we needed to look at how we use our sanctions regime to bear down on these individuals to issue travel bans, to freeze their accounts if they have them in this country, and to encourage European partners and G7 partners to do the same.
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GB NEWS | Patrick Christys attempted to speak to migrants in Calais as part of his latest investigation into the smuggling gangs
"And I am very pleased that we've gotten to a place where we are laying legislation today.
"We will have our first designations tomorrow, and you will see across those designations different jurisdictions, those who enable their crime, those who advertise their wares on the internet. We are going after them!"
Despite Lammy's insistence that the sanctions plans would work as an effective deterrence, his failure to identify specific names of targets or go into further depth - combined with Patrick's on-the-ground reporting - led several viewers to lodge their complaints.
On X, one GMB viewer raged: "Another pathetic attempt by Labour. What use is @DavidLammy? I am watching him now. His mouth is moving but all I hear is noise."
"If Patrick on GB News can find these gangs in a few hours, why can't the British and French governments... simple answer, they don't want to. They're gaslighting British public again," a second fumed.
A third lauded Patrick's work for GB News: "Hey Dave mate - ask @PatrickChristys a real journalist - he seems to be able to find the gangs, single-handedly!"
"Patrick Christy of GB News has managed to find smugglers. Why have the UK & French authorities failed to do so?" a fourth weighed in before a fifth raged: "@GBNEWS is showing you all up. Government has absolutely zero intention of doing anything. Rest of the media still swallowing gov bulls**t."
A sixth echoed: "Please refer to @GBNews @PatrickChristys to get some hints and tips on how to 'smash' the gangs. The UK and French are doing nothing. It is all a money-making business for govt, lawyers, NGO's, traffickers etc. Just stop the pull factors."
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"Get clueless Lammy off the air #gmb," another weighed, although there was some support for the Foreign Secretary in response to the interview.
They praised: "Huge well done to Lammy and Labour using the correct path to tackle difficult situations, removing the emotion and stupid childish unworkable Rwanda policies and Farage gimmicks to getting the job done. Dismantling is one way forward..BUT stopping the wars is a better way forward." (sic)
The criticism of Lammy came after Patrick shared a series of reports from Calais, one of which he could be seen directly challenging an individual suspected of operating illegal Channel crossings after they responded to his enquiries about passage to Britain.
The GB News host arranged to meet the suspected people smuggler, posing as a Vietnamese migrant, at a specific location in France following an exchange of messages in which he offered assistance with crossing the maritime border.
Patrick documented the encounter, which revealed the suspected smuggler had communicated with him in English through messages before the face-to-face meeting.
A GB News investigations team has previously handed information they have gathered to the security services in Britain, including phone numbers and copies of conversations.