Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a press conference this morning behind a lectern that read ‘Stop the Boats’.
However, new polling suggests that a majority of British voters do not have any confidence in the Prime Minister’s ability to fulfil that pledge.
A new YouGov poll in The Times shows that only 35 percent of Tories trust Mr Sunak on immigration compared to 54 percent who trust Nigel Farage.
While 28 percent of overall voters said they trust Farage on immigration, 26 percent of voters trust Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, and 19 percent trust Sunak.
The survey, which spoke to 2,092 adults on January 16 and 17, was carried out in the middle of the parliamentary chaos this week as MPs voted on his flagship Rwanda bill.
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While the rebellion failed, Mr Sunak suffered his biggest revolt since becoming PM, as around 60 backed changes to toughen up the legislation.
Kelvin MacKenzie, the former editor of The Sun, posted a lengthy analysis of the immigration poll on X, formerly known as Twitter, as he explained why Tories trust Mr Farage’s “instinct on the issue” compared to other political figures.
McKenzie highlighted the case of Khairi Saadalla, a terrorist who murdered three men in a Reading park in 2020.
The case has been in the news again this week after the opening of an inquest into the murders.
He wrote: “Under [Farage’s] watch I don’t believe a piece of filth called Khairi Saadallah would have been allowed to spend years in our country.
“In fact under Farage he would never have been allowed to come here in the first place.”
He noted when Saadallah, who was given a whole-life jail term, arrived in 2013 from Libya he was already “a member of Ansar al-Sharia, the anti-Western death cult which had killed a US ambassador”.
The former newspaper editor continued: “As a Jihadist he had been trained to kill. There then followed years of violent behaviour, drugs, and convictions for assault. But he was never deported. Why?
“While in jail for the he spends time with a radical preacher. Fifteen days after leaving he goes to a park in Forbury Gardens, Reading, where three male friends are enjoying a summer evening.
“Shouting Allahu Akbar he murders all three by stabbing each of them just once in the neck.
“He had been trained to kill back in Libya.
“My question is how did a drug-taking, violent criminal with Jihardist background spend seven years here without somebody, anybody, saying we should kick him out?
“Apparently the Home Office thought Libya too dangerous for him.
“A park in Reading proved too dangerous for three friends.”
Mr McKenzie said that the stories like Saadallah are the reason why “Tories are so behind in the polls and why Farage has our confidence”.
