Ex-PM May gives her verdict on Braverman calling migrants an ‘invasion’

The former prime minister also said her Brexit deal would have been better than Boris Johnson’s exit agreement

Former prime minister Theresa May said she would not have used the language of ‘invasion’ (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Theresa May said she would not have used Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s language of calling migrants an “invasion”.

The former prime minister raised concerns about Ms Braverman likening the arrival of asylum seekers on small boats to an “invasion on our southern coast” during comments made in the Commons last year.

Mrs May, asked about the Cabinet minister’s remarks on LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr, said: “It is not the language that I would use.

“And I have made one or two points about some of the migration policies that have been brought up by the Government.

“I’m particularly concerned about their most recent legislation and its impact on the victims of slavery, for example,” she said, in reference to the Illegal Migration Act’s treatment of asylum seekers arriving via unauthorised routes.

Mrs May, who previously led the Home Office for six years, said the “hostile environment” policy carried out by the department during her tenure mistakenly came to take on a broader meaning.

The policy, introduced by Mrs May in 2012 when she was home secretary, was intended to deter migrants from remaining in the UK without permission but was later ruled to have broken equalities law.

It led to hundreds of members of the Windrush generation – who legally came to Britain from the Caribbean in the decades following the Second World War – being wrongfully detained and denied their rights.

The former Conservative Party leader said the label was used to “describe the environment we wanted to set for those who were here illegally.”

It was a bad deal, I think as we saw from all the problems we had on the Northern Ireland Protocol

Theresa May on Boris Johnson's Brexit deal

She added: “It is only fair to people who come here legally, that people who are here illegally are not able to, if you like, carry on living a life as if they’ve come here legally.

“And so it was aimed at a particular group of people. What of course happened was it came by some to be interpreted as more generally applying to people who had come in to live in the country.

“And that was a mistake because that was never what was intended.”

During the interview, Mrs May also argued that her Brexit deal was “better” than the one Boris Johnson, her Downing Street successor, took Britain out of the European Union with following his landslide general election victory in 2019.

Her deal, which failed to gain Parliament’s support, would have seen Britain follow EU rules until both sides could be assured that Brexit measures would not establish a hard border in Ireland — a safety mechanism known as the “backstop”.

She said Mr Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement, signed in 2020 and fully enacted in 2021, had made it “difficult for people” in Northern Ireland.

“It was a bad deal, I think as we saw from all the problems we had on the Northern Ireland Protocol,” she said.

“And Rishi Sunak came in and of course agreed the Windsor Framework, which has eased that situation and in many ways resolves those issues.

“But we had that period of time when it was really very difficult for Northern Ireland and difficult for people, supermarkets and so forth in Great Britain who were sending food over to Northern Ireland, all the checks and stuff that came as a result of Boris Johnson’s deal.

“So that is why I think my deal would not have been in that position and would have been better.”

Mrs May, who became only the UK’s second female prime minister, said she feels sexism is still at play in British politics.

When she was in power between 2016 and 2019, she said there was a “focus” on what she wore.

Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, she said the media framed her as a “typically silly woman”.

She continued: “It is one of the challenges, sadly, for women in public life. If a man shows emotion, it is wonderful that he is showing that side of himself.

“If a woman shows emotion, it is weakness.”

The interviews are part of the senior politician’s promotional campaign for a book she has written called The Abuse Of Power.