A furious row has erupted on GB News after guests clashed over plans to electronically tag illegal migrants, with accusations flying over pull factors, enforcement failures and whether asylum seekers should ever be allowed to work in the UK.
Former Labour adviser Jo Phillips questioned whether tagging would work in practice, arguing it depended entirely on who was running the scheme and warning it could be badly enforced.
But Former Conservative MP Ranil Jayawardena said that tagging, alongside allowing asylum seekers to work, would act as a powerful pull factor and encourage even more people to risk dangerous Channel crossings.
Speaking on Britain's News Channel, Ms Phillips said: “Well, I mean, it depends who’s operating it, because if it’s the same people that are operating released from prison, I wouldn’t hold out hope that you’d find any of them.
"I mean, you’re laughing, Ranil Jayawardena, but it’s a good point very true. Who’s going to operate some dreadful company with a dodgy thing?
“In theory, it sounds quite sensible if you take the view that while people are sitting waiting for asylum, they should be able to work, so therefore they’re not a drain.
"Now, I know Ranil doesn’t agree with me, but I think they should be able to work. Under your government the rate of people stuck in asylum limbo went up absolutely through the roof.
“And this Government is tackling it, albeit slowly, because we know there are people coming on the boats, but that’s not the only way they come here.
Former Labour adviser Jo Phillips questioned whether tagging would work in practice
|GB NEWS
Mr Jayawardena responded: “Allowing people to work will draw an even greater pull factor. It will draw even more people to make that perilous journey across the Channel.
"And actually, the last Government did have a plan to deter people. That’s what we should be doing deterring people in the first place.
“I agree with you, Ben. It’s about deterring people from making that journey, and that means making sure that once they are here, if they’ve come here illegally, they’re deported immediately or processed offshore, which was the plan before.”
Ms Phillips replied: “You’ve still got to process people. You’ve still got to hold them.”
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Former Conservative MP Ranil Jayawardena warning that tagging, alongside allowing asylum seekers to work, would act as a powerful pull factor
|GB NEWS
Mr Jayawardena said: “No, no, no the Rwanda scheme meant that you’d deport people immediately and be processed offshore.
"We weren’t given a chance to do that, and I hope that we’ll have a chance again in the future.”
He added: “Once they’ve got a tag, what’s to say they don’t try and get rid of those tags and then become totally invested somewhere in the country? That does happen. That’s why they should be in holding centres.”
GB News host Ben Leo asked: “Where can these people work then, Jo, if you want these migrants to work? In which industries? Care homes? Well, Zach Polanski wants care homes and the NHS. He wants strange men from faraway lands we don’t know who they are or where they’re from working in hospitals, looking after our parents and grandparents.
“Polanski also said, rather dismissively, that it was not a job that he would do, wiping backsides. He thought it was beneath him. So where do you want these people to work?”
Ms Phillips said: “Well, I’m not saying whether I want them to work, but we’ve brought in the Boris wave since we were talking.”
Ben responded: “No, no, that’s a different point.”
Ms Phillips replied: “No, it’s not. We’ve had asylum seekers. We’ve had to bring in an enormous number of people.”
Ben asked: “Where do you want asylum seekers to fill the gaps in social care?”
The comments come after Katy Bourne, Sussex’s Police and Crime Commissioner, has suggested electronic tags could be imposed on male asylum seekers due to be accommodated at a nearby military training camp.
She called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to “be bold” and use the planned arrival of 540 asylum seekers at Crowborough Training Camp as a test case to assess whether tagging could help deter criminal activity.
Ms Bourne said the proposal could act as a deterrent to criminal behaviour, while also allowing migrants “greater freedom” to travel further from holding centres and take up temporary work.
She pointed to a “promising” pilot launched earlier in 2025, in which Sussex Police used electronic tags on repeat shoplifters.
According to Ms Bourne, officers monitoring the tags are able to track offenders’ movements precisely, and so far the scheme has led to noticeable changes in behaviour among those involved.