Here Are The Facts Behind That Question Time Audience Member's Angry 'Close The Borders' Rant
An audience member on Thursday night’s BBC Question Time caused quite a stir when she angrily argued the UK should “completely close the borders” to stop non-Brits entering the country.
Claiming Britain was “sinking” and immigrants were costing public services too much, the audience member repeatedly asked: “What sort of country is allowing this?”
The passionate outburst was prompted by a question to the show’s panel, which asked: “Please explain how chronic understaffing in social care will be tackled, given the government’s new immigration system.”
“We should completely close the borders … enough is enough”
This audience member says the number of people ’flooding in’ to the UK is costing public services too much. #bbcqtpic.twitter.com/T5EshhWqQu— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) February 20, 2020
A government policy statement this week outlined plans for a new points-based system after freedom of movement ends and said the economy needs to move away from a reliance on “cheap labour from Europe”.
The woman in the Question Time audience took this one step further, calling for a total ban on people entering the country because “enough is enough”.
But is she right?
HuffPost UK takes a look at her main points and the examines the actual facts...
The UK Is ‘Sinking’
“At what stage does the panel think this country has had enough, that we should close the borders? [...] Because it’s got to the stage now where there’s no education, schooling, infrastructure – it’s enough, we are sinking.”
Parts of the UK are indeed underwater right now but that is due to the weather and not immigration.
Completely closing the borders makes the fundamental mistake of treating all those who seek to cross them as one homogenous group that is costing the UK money.
Studies that try to determine the overall cost of immigrants on the UK vary widely in their conclusions due to differing methodologies and agendas of those conducting them.
But...
