Labour ‘humiliated’ on BBC Newsnight as star rages at migrant ‘failure’

A guest on BBC Newsnight brutally ripped into the Labour Government, branding them and their actions as an "absolute embarrassment". Immigration researcher Zoe Gardner appeared on the show to the discuss the High Court's ruling that a hotel in Epping cannot house migrants.

In a scathing rant, Zoe said that the move from the High Court is a "failure" before she went on to accuse the Government of fueling "the fans of hatred" with "anti-migrant rhetoric". She argued: "This is absolutely the wrong way for this to have gone." She pointed out that people are now being moved out of their hotel, where there were violent, racist protests taking place week in, week out, before continuing: "It was a huge disturbance for the community and yes, you're absolutely right, people should not have been housed in that hotel.

"But for it to happen in this way? What an enormous humiliation for the Government. It's a huge failure which lays bare the arrogance with which they approached this asylum issue."

Zoe continued to say that the Government has gone "day after day" this summer, pursuing anti-migrant rhetoric across all of their policy approaches and announcements. She added: "What they've done is fuel the flames of this hatred.

"What they should have been doing is acting sooner to move people out of hotels and into a more sustainable, community-based form of accommodation."

Viewers at home were not best pleased with the show's guest, as they took to social media to complain about her being named as an expert. Posting to X/Twitter, one wrote: "What research has she done? She's just an activist. That could be fine but call a spade a spade."

Another echoed: "It doesn’t seem appropriate to refer to Gardner as a ‘migration researcher’ as that implies some kind of neutrality when clearly Gardner is in favour of extremely high levels of inward migration into this country. A better description could be a pro-migration campaigner?"

Meanwhile, a third said: "Another activist being presented as an expert." And one more complained: "'Immigration researcher Zoe Gardner' implies she's some sort of expert on immigration, instead of a pro-immigration activist she's widely reported to be. The BBC should better inform their audience of who they're platforming."