Robert Jenrick’s Channel threats cross a shameful line we must never accept

There is something deeply sickening about a politician suggesting that threatening lives in the English Channel could solve a problem in “a matter of days”. Yet that is the grotesque territory Reform's Robert Jenrick has entered without a moment’s hesitation. Jenrick should hang his head in shame, because his words reveal a staggering contempt for human life and a willingness to abandon the most basic standards of British decency in pursuit of political power. This is the same man who, as Conservative immigration minister, ordered Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry murals removed from an asylum centre to make it less welcoming to frightened children. Now he has graduated from stripping cartoon characters off walls to raising the prospect of deadly force against vulnerable civilians, a descent into ever more extreme rhetoric that is utterly contemptible. The Royal Marines have earned their reputation through generations of courage and sacrifice, and deserve far better than to be dragged into the Tory turncoat's poisonous political posturing. Britain also deserves better than politicians who treat the possibility of human beings dying at sea as another opportunity to sound tough on immigration. Nobody disputes the need to secure our borders, stop dangerous crossings and destroy the criminal gangs exploiting desperate families. Still, there must surely be a moral boundary that no decent politician would dream of crossing. Jenrick has charged straight through it, apparently without the slightest regard for the consequences of his words. Lord Alf Dubs, who escaped Nazi persecution as a child, rightly describes his remarks as “horrific”, and his condemnation should carry particular weight. Our country has a proud tradition of offering sanctuary to people fleeing war, torture and persecution, a fundamental principle of humanity that Jenrick's appalling remarks betray. He may believe such cruelty will win him political applause, but his words should leave an indelible stain on his reputation. He should never be allowed to forget them.