Labour MP Mike Tapp has acknowledged that the majority of small boat crossings are "young men" during a heated exchange on GB News with hosts Emily Carver and Tom Harwood.
The Dover and Deal MP made the admission whilst discussing his new video outlining Labour's approach to tackling Channel crossings.
When pressed about demographic claims made by a Cabinet colleague, Tapp stated: "I'll be really clear, that we do see the majority of those crossing are young men now. That's not acceptable."
His frank acknowledgement came after Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones claimed the majority of arrivals were "children, babies, and women."
Tom Harwood challenged the Labour MP on GB News
GB NEWS
The presenters challenged Tapp over Jones's statement, with Tom noting that government figures show "at least 70 per cent of these are adult men."
He questioned whether Tapp would "confront" the Cabinet minister about spreading "misinformation on such a critical issue."
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Emily also bluntly asked: "Why would he lie and say they're children and women, they are mainly men?"
The Labour MP deflected, saying: "You'll have to ask him about that. I think he's a fantastic minister, but I'm being really clear now about what we're seeing coming over."
Tom pressed further, highlighting that No10 had refused to stand by Jones's claims whilst maintaining "full confidence" in him.
The MP for Dover and Deal repeatedly avoided directly criticising his colleague, instead pivoting to discuss his work with the Home Office.
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Emily then confronted Tapp about reports that the government was circumventing its promise to end migrant hotel use through what she termed a "sneaky" method.
She alleged the government was "technically" stopping hotel use by purchasing properties and converting them into multi-occupancy private rentals in cities like Bristol and Cardiff.
Tapp explained: "There's a number of ways of doing this. The first is bringing down the small boat crossings.
"The second is deporting more that simply shouldn't be here we're already seeing record numbers. And the third is potentially processing centres here to deal with that.
Mike Tapp admitted that it is mostly 'young men'
GB NEWS
"If that's using what used to be a hotel, I don't have a particular problem with that. Let's get this moving and get them deported."
Emily fumed: "That's not what people wanted, though. They wanted an end to the use of hotels not for taxpayers’ money just to be used to buy them up. It’s a bit sneaky, don’t you think?"
Tapp responded: "My view is, there's lots of different ways of doing this. And really, it depends on taking out the smuggling gangs, increasing those deportations, processing quickly already record numbers.
"We've done a lot in a year, but there's more to go, and I'm sure there's more to come."
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