Corbyn Calais Smears Busted

Last weekend, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited a refugee encampment near the French port town of Calais, where he concluded that conditions were dreadful, and that the Government should consider asylum applications from anyone there who can demonstrate that they have family in the UK - he used the word “connection”. He did not say that everyone there, or anyone else, should just be let in regardless.

No, he still doesn't look scary

But immigration is a key dog-whistle for the right-leaning press, and so the creative side of several variously desperate hacks was fired up, and fired up so enthusiastically that many of them are now in need of the nearest fire extinguisher, as their pants are on fire. First to induce an incendiary garment situation was Kate E McCann at the Telegraph, telling “Jeremy Corbyn: All Calais migrants should be given chance to come to Britain”.

As Corbyn said “‘everyone who wants to come to Britain and has a connection’ should be free to submit an application for processing by UK officials”, that is not true: the Tel is just making it up to suit its agenda. This did not trouble Ms McCann, who continued “Jeremy Corbyn has called on the government to allow thousands of migrants living in camps in Calais to come to the UK”, which is even more dishonest.

And, just in case you thought the Tel was not peddling nothing more than dog-whistles, the article is accompanied by a poll asking “Should all migrants [note, not refugees] in Calais be allowed to settle in the UK?” So, with a characteristic deployment of falsehood and misinformation, Telegraph readers are fed yet another totally untrue story. This has also been achieved by the Murdoch doggies at the Times.

“Let Calais migrants into UK, says Jeremy Corbyn … Jeremy Corbyn has called for asylum-seekers waiting in makeshift camps in Calais to be welcomed into Britain, triggering anger among his MPs” told Sam Coates, adding for good dog-whistling measure “The Labour leader concluded a two-day visit to France by urging the British government to follow the example of Germany, which has allowed in a million migrants in a year”.

Makes a scarier proposition than “considering” applications from around 3,000, eh? And also basking in the glow of those burning trousers was Nick Craven at the Mail On Sunday, claiming “On chaotic tour of Calais camp, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calls for Britain to open doors to 'hundreds of thousands’”. Er, did he really say that?

“Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last night suggested Britain should take in similar numbers of refugees to the ‘hundreds of thousands’ entering Germany”. Spit it out, Nick, what did Corbyn actually say? “Germany is taking several hundred thousand people and I think we should have been part of the European programme from the very beginning in 2013”. So he’s just making it up to suit the paper’s agenda too, then.

Corbyn does not do himself any favours sometimes in his choice of words, and his chief spinner Seumas Milne, who has himself been the subject of some highly creative press attention, needs to get his boss to give the hacks less opportunity for that creativity. But there is very little they can do when faced with a press that is determined to lie to their readers for the express purpose of frightening them.