'This is not the answer!' Danny Kruger slaps down Labour plans to house migrants in ex-army bases

In the Government's latest attempt to tackle the nation's migrant crisis, the Home Office has confirmed that almost 1,000 asylum seekers will be housed on former bases from November.

Migrants will be moved into the Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex.

Asked if he was supportive of the Government’s plan, he told GB News: "I'm not, and I'm very concerned about it. I have a large military community in my constituency. We've housed huge numbers of Afghans and others in recent years.

"I don't think the answer to the small boats crisis is to use up our military accommodation for them. The answer is to stop the boats themselves, to stop people coming over the Channel in these numbers, stop them absolutely by assuring that anybody who arrives here is swiftly detained and deported."

Stressing that the "only way" to tackle the crisis is to "leave the ECHR", he added: "My party is committed to doing that. We have a whole plan for detention and deportation. That's the way to reduce, to eliminate this problem of illegal migration.

"We should not be putting people into military accommodation or into hotels. We should be deporting them."

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Quizzed by host Eamonn Holmes on the party’s plans to reduce the size of the Civil Service, he explained: "We're not giving a number yet because we haven't yet designed the shape of Whitehall that we think we will need to implement the policy plan that we are putting together.

"But even to reduce the size of the Civil Service back to the pre-Brexit levels that it was 10 years ago, would be a 30 per cent reduction in headcount. I think that is evidently achievable, and we'll actually have a more efficient state that actually serves taxpayers and citizens better."

The Reform MP added: "I think we can achieve at least that number, but it depends on the functions themselves. There's huge areas of Whitehall payroll that are unnecessary in HR, in comms, and indeed in policy, which has swollen enormously in recent years, which we can get back to.

"Sir Robert Peel, in the 19th century ran the entire Home Office, which basically was the domestic policy of the state with less than 20 people, that was all you needed in those days. I don't think we can get back to those sorts of numbers, but you can show it's possible to run an effective Government without what we have, hundreds of thousands of civil servants around here, many of whom we don't need."

Offering his reaction to comments made by Reform MP Sarah Pochin, who claimed it "drives her mad" when she sees "adverts full of black people and full of Asian people", Mr Kruger concluded: "I think it was really regrettable what she said.

"Clearly it was wrong to say those words. However, Nigel Farage is right. She didn't mean what it sounds like she meant, and if she did, if she was actually a racist, she wouldn't be in the party anymore."

He added: "We've got to be responsible for what we say, and she's rightly apologised for that. I think it's a real shame because so many people will be very naturally very hurt and offended by that.

"But the main thing is Nigel has a common sense approach. He's forgiving, he's concluded that she didn't mean it, she meant something different, and she's apologised and that's it."