STEPHEN Flynn and Yvette Cooper clashed with one another during a heated debate on migration on Thursday night’s Question Time.
During the show, the question was put to the shadow home secretary as to how Labour would prevent asylum seekers dying in boat crossings in the Channel.
Specifically, Cooper (below) was asked about seven-year-old Sara, who was crushed to death on a small boat last month after her family were told they would be deported to Iraq after spending years in Europe.
A BBC investigation released on Thursday reported that the broadcaster had tracked down the smuggler behind the crossing.
The senior Labour figure was pressed on what Labour would do about this and whether the party would commit to providing more safe and legal routes to prevent such tragedies from happening in future.
“There will always be different kinds of processes to manage asylum systems and resettlements,” Cooper said.
Pressed once again on a commitment to safe and legal routes, Cooper told the show’s host Fiona Bruce: “There always will be both safe routes but there also will always have to be limits and constraints on them.
“We will continue to support things like the resettlement schemes and we believe they should be reformed because they’re not working.”
Cooper then asked Bruce to let her finish the point while Flynn could be heard in the background saying, “it’s a no”.
The comments come in the same week that Labour refused to rule out sending refugees back to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan from which they escaped.
Flynn accused them of engaging in “populist dog whistle” and clashed once again with Cooper on the issue on Question Time.
She said: “I think unless you deal with the criminal gangs in the Channel, this is probably going to get worse…”
At this point, Flynn started to speak up and as Cooper hit out at him for interrupting, the SNP Westminster leader told her “you’ve had plenty time to talk there I’m sorry”.
He said: “You undermine the criminal gangs by providing safe and legal routes as Jessica (audience member) has outlined. That is the solution to this problem.
“You want to know what the issue is. The issue is that the Westminster consensus doesn’t work.”
Cooper continued to speak over Flynn and said it was important to bring criminal gangs to justice.
An audience member then told Cooper to answer the question “yes or no” and she said that changes to legal routes wouldn’t stop gangs from operating.
