Small boat arrivals are ‘wealthy men’ who do not deserve help, says Reform’s Danny Kruger

Danny Kruger’s claim was immediately dismissed as false . Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA View image in fullscreen Danny Kruger’s claim was immediately dismissed as false . Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA Small boat arrivals are ‘wealthy men’ who do not deserve help, says Reform’s Danny Kruger The fact that some migrants pay people smugglers thousands of pounds makes them well off, MP claims Asylum seekers who arrive on small boats across the Channel are “wealthy men” who do not deserve the help of the British state, according to the Reform UK MP Danny Kruger. The former Conservative, who defected last year, said the fact that some migrants were paying people smugglers thousands of pounds – often using their life savings or borrowed money – made them well off. The claim was immediately dismissed . Speaking at the Big Brue festival in Bruton, Somerset, Kruger said: “, most of them [are] comparatively wealthy and fit young men who’ve crossed safe countries to begin the journey to the UK.” Asked ’s moderator, the editor of the Independent, Geordie Greig, how he knew these men were wealthy, Kruger said: “Because they’re paying thousands of pounds. They’re paying thousands of pounds to people smugglers to get here. Comparatively wealthy, compared to the people who I think most of us can regard as really deserving of the compassion of the British taxpayer.” Seema Syeda, a Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants spokesperson, said it was untrue that most asylum seekers who arrive on boats are wealthy. She said: “The reality is that most asylum seekers who arrive here are denied the right to work, live off as little as £8 a week, and can end up in destitution. But in the end, whether rich or poor, people fleeing war and persecution deserve to be welcomed. The right to safety is a human right. “Many people arriving here have been forcibly displaced due to war, genocide or imperialism that the British state has, past and present, funded or supported.” Earlier this month, Reform politician Matt Goodwin, the party’s unsuccessful candidate at the Gorton and Denton byelection, caused outrage when he said at the party’s annual conference that the “best and the brightest” of the British population had been replaced by “drug-dealing goat-herders” through immigration. Kruger said Goodwin was correct to make these incendiary remarks. He said: “There are some drug-dealing goat-herders who we’ve admitted to this country, so I mean, it’s factual.” Asked , he said: “Yes I do.” He added: “And they don’t like our country.” Kruger said he was concerned “about kind of massive cultural transformation.