Zack Polanski Calls For End To Labour's 'Cruel And Heartless' Immigration Policy

Zack Polanski will call on the Labour government to ditch its “cruel and heartless” policy towards asylum seekers in Calais.

In his Christmas Day message, the Green Party leader will say that the £476 million of UK taxpayers’ money spent in the French port should instead fund a system based on “compassion, kindness and humanity.” 

Polanski spent three days in Calais in the run-up to Christmas, and says he saw UK-funded police officers slashing migrants’ tents and confiscating wood they use to keep warm.

In a video released at 3am on Christmas Day – the same time King Charles addresses the nation – Polanski will hit out at “the constant political rhetoric and demonisation of people who are just trying to survive in unimaginable living conditions”.  

“I don’t believe we’re the country who the media paint us to be,” he will say. “I don’t believe that we’re cruel and heartless. And I don’t believe that if people saw what I’ve seen in recent days, they would turn away.

“We should be diverting that money to a humanitarian and compassionate response. The rhetoric we hear about ‘stopping the boats’ and ‘smashing the gangs’ - none of this is working.”

Polanksi will urge viewers to make a donation to Calais Appeal, a consortium of six organisations providing food and water, clothing, tents, chopped wood and other support to asylum seekers in the town. 

He will add: “I realise some of this can be an unusual Christmas Day message, but at the heart of all of it is compassion, kindness and humanity.”