'She's deluded!' Equalities chief sparks fiery GB News row after claiming migrants are 'demonised' by Britons

Ms Stephenson claimed that 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 her remarks, Mr Parry told GB News: "I'm sorry, I don't know the lady myself, but I think she must be deluded. Her conclusions just don't make any sense.

"You look at the common sense of the situation, the most recent report from the Migration Advisory Committee says that the average cost of a migrant coming to the UK over a lifetime is £109,000. And she's saying don't call migration a threat."

He added: "She's saying that she would be more asylum seekers. She says people must curb the language and not demonise asylum seekers, as though in some way asylum seekers are giving us a positive in this country?!"

Asking Scarlett MccGwire for her verdict, the former Labour Adviser defended Ms Stephenson and said Britons "shouldn't demonise" illegal migrants.

Ms MccGwire argued: "She talks about the demonisation of migrants, the people, and what she says, which I think she's absolutely right, is we shouldn't turn them into the enemy. They're individual people, they have stories.

"We might not agree with them, we might think that most of them shouldn't be here, but that doesn't mean that we turn them into these stories about, 'oh, I'm frightened to go down the street because a migrant might attack me', or 'swans being taken from parks for Christmas' because migrants are taking them for Christmas."

Hitting back at the ex-Adviser, host Eamonn Holmes responded: "The general overall feeling from people is that there are too many migrants and there's no control on our borders, and are people not right to have that fear?"

She said: "I think it's perfectly okay to say that we should have more control of our borders, but you don't demonise the people in the boats."

Interjected Ms MccGwire, Mr Parry fumed: "'I'm sorry, hang on - amongst those people in the boats we are importing sex attackers to this country, and that's not a wild statement to make."

As Ms MccGwire claimed there have been "59" convicted sex attackers "out of the thousands" of migrants who have crossed into Britain, Mr Parry snapped back: "That's 59 too many to be importing into this country! You're saying that it doesn't matter, it does matter."

Mc MccGwire responded: "Of course it matters, but I'm more likely - well I am very unlikely to be attacked on the street by a sex attacker, but my daughter is more likely to be attacked by somebody who isn't a migrant."

Mr Parry stated: "So don't bring in people who are also attacking our females?"

She then argued: "What she's saying is we don't want a hostile environment, and that's all she's saying. She is saying don't demonise the people."

Interjecting the debate, host Ellie Costello highlighted Ms Stephenson's stance on the ECHR, and how it would be a "mistake" to leave.

Ms MccGwire responded: "I think that our interpretation of the ECHR is often wrong. I am surprised actually, if you look at what the ECHR actually says, we can deport people who are economic migrants, we are doing so now, and we are actually trying to process people.

"And we had years and years in which I do not understand why we didn't process people as fast as possible. We used to process people in six weeks, and then we spent years putting people in hotels?!"

Mr Parry then concluded: "I think the woman's absolutely deluded. Over the weekend, 810 people came here in a 24 hour period. We don't know the identity or the character of any one of those 810 who were mostly young men of fighting age, and yet this woman is saying 'nothing to be seen here, nothing to worry about'. That's dangerous."

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