'Immigration IS a threat!' Equalities chief accused of 'lecturing' Britons as remarks dismantled by Matt Goodwin

Ms Stephenson claimed the "demonisation of migrants" and the idea that they cause "huge risks for the country" can make "the lives not just of migrants to the UK, but of ethnic minority UK citizens, very, very difficult".

Expressing his outrage at the remarks, Mr Goodwin told host Michelle Dewberry: "Firstly, who is this person? We have unelected, unaccountable elites within our public institutions that have no real connection to the people who have to live with the consequences of these decisions like mass, uncontrolled immigration.

"Lecturing the country on what they should think or believe about these issues."

He added: "And the second thing is, have you noticed, these people talk endlessly about the rights of illegal migrants, they talk endlessly about the rights of outsiders and foreigners. They never talk about the rights of the hardworking, law-abiding British people, including the many people watching this show.

"And what she said, which really, really stuck in my throat, is that it's wrong to describe mass immigration as a threat to the country. If this person who claims that she is an expert backed by the Labour Government by the way, was really reading the research, she would know immigration is a threat to our economy."

Mr Goodwin said: "It's hollowing out our economy, it's a net fiscal cost we know this. Only last week, the Migration Advisory Committee gave us more evidence for that. It's a threat to our security, it's a threat to British women and girls who are being sexually abused and harassed by people who are being imported into our country.

"It's a threat to our housing, we know that it's exacerbating the housing crisis, and to be blunt, it's a threat to our culture. Because it is creating parallel societies with people who do not share our cultural values, who do not share our way of life.

"And we just had a very sound leader of this quango, Baroness Faulkner. She was much more reasonable on all of these issues. She basically was closer to where the British people are on these issues. This person who Labour have put in is clearly there to try and project the Labour world view, this sort of pro-immigration, pro-world view. I think she's completely adrift with the rest of the country."

Defending Ms Stephenson's comments, commentator Aaron Bastani told GB News that her stance is a matter of "opinion".

He argued: "What she's describing is a matter of opinion. Somebody out there watching will think migration is a threat, they'll have agreed with every single word that Matt just said, and some people will disagree, but that's the point. It's a matter of private opinion and then of course we express this at the ballot and it's reflected by political parties and Government.

"That shouldn't be the proviso of a quango which cost the taxpayer £20million a year. That lady herself is on £69,000 a year, I believe. But as Matt said, who is she? Why does this organisation exist?"

Mr Bastani added: "It certainly isn't meant to police people's personal views on a particular policy. So £20million, a lot of money, scrap it. When people say you can scrap big parts of the state, the bureaucratic administrative state and save a lot of money and put it elsewhere, you're told, 'well, no, that's only £20million, that's not a lot in terms of Government spend. we're a £3trillion economy'. That's true.

"The reality is, however, there are hundreds of things like this. So I think the EHRC should go, I don't think it should exist and I think it's a perfectly legitimate thing to say look, we spend £5billion a year on asylum in this country, it's a perfectly progressive thing to say 'why can't we spend half that?'"

Offering further criticism of Ms Stephenson, Mr Goodwin responded: "Goodness me, we actually agree on something. The one thing that really sticks in my throat here is this person's supposed to be the expert. We know from the Migration Advisory Committee, we know from serious research that's been done within this country, we know that actually immigration is problematic for a whole host of reasons.

"This is the person who's supposed to be reflecting that evidence and supposed to be in that balanced position. What she's done is she's come out on day one, she's basically had this case of verbal diarrhoea."

He added: "She's lost the country. Everybody can see she's being highly partisan, everybody can see she's just been put in there by the Labour Government to basically parrot the Labour pro-immigration viewpoint, and that is not what these organisations should be doing."

Echoing Mr Goodwin's thoughts, Mr Bastani concluded: "I find it just a massive example of an overstep, that somebody who's meant to protect individual liberties, what the EHRC is meant to do, the first thing she does is actually police people's freedom of speech.

"I would say we should spend more money on certain things, and you might disagree with that, but we have to be sensible. There's also some things we shouldn't be spending money on. The EHRC is one of them."

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