Labour Council Leader slammed after calling for an 'anti-migrant militia' to repel asylum seekers along UK coastlines


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A Labour Council leader has been severely criticised after calling for the formation of an 'anti-migrant militia' to defend Britiain's coastline.

Brendan Chilton, the Labour Group Leader on Ashford Council in Kent, suggested that ordinary Brits could set up a "Home Guard" to repel asylum seekers arriving on UK shores.

Writing on Twitter, Chilton said:

"Here's an idea. It's quite clear the Channel migrant crisis is not going away. The Government haven't got a clue. How many are arriving and then disappearing? Perhaps we need to form a sort of 'Home Guard'- voluntary- to support the coast guard, police, border force etc?'

 

 

After being inundated with a torrent of criticism, Chilton swiftly deleted his tweet - but not before numerous Twitter users managed to grab screenshots, leading to even further criticism:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite removing his tweet, Chilton has since doubled down on his suggestion - responding to numerous Twitter users in an attempt to defend it.

In one response, Chilton claimed that criticism of his tweet was "crazy", stating:

"If you can have volunteers helping the NHS, Schools etc why can’t you have volunteers helping an underfunded and overstretched border force? I genuinely don’t see the problem here but Twitter has as usual gone crazy."

 

 

However, in response to Chilton's attempted defence, journalist Tristan Cross quipped:

"what could be the problem with empowering groups of vigilante would-be cops to patrol britain's borders in order to repel refugees, despite having absolutely no jurisdiction to do so, i wonder"

 

 

Chilton has also since claimed that he wasn't suggesting an anti-migrant militia or a vigilante group, but instead a volunteer organisation to provide asylum seekers with "tea, food, water blankets etc":

 

 

In addition to being the Labour Group leader on Ashfield Council, Chilton is also the head of the pro-Starmer campaign organisation, Labour Future.

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