Nigel Farage issues stinging nine-word swipe at Home Office over immigration row

Nigel Farage has slammed Home Secretary Yvette Cooper after a tweet said she was taking control of “irregular migration”. The Reform UK leader was enraged at what appeared to be watered down terminology which he says is an attempt by PM Sir Keir Starmer's party to “bury illegal migration” and vowed he “will not let them get away with it.”

Robert Jenrick MP also snapped back at the Home Office tweet saying “you misspelt illegal” with hundreds agreeing at his blistering comeback saying it was an attempt to make it seem less threatening.

The full Home Office tweet reads: “Today Home Secretary @YvetteCooperMP set out what we are doing to boost our border security and deliver a properly managed asylum system.”

A graphic then sets out what the measures will be to tackle "irregular migration" such as speeding up asylum processing which they claim will save over £7 billion in future costs, launching a Border Security Command with new “counter-terror style powers” as well as working with international partners to strike new returns deals and tackle migration.

Other political commentators have also leapt on the tweet, with Darren Grimes, a GB News presenter, also holding Labour to task on the apparent change in terminology.

Mr Grimes said: “‘Irregular’. You mean illegals. You forgot to mention you’re also granting them all amnesty.” Another fuming X user said: “You’re speeding up illegal immigration. ‘Irregular’ you really are taking the electorate for mugs.”

However a spokesperson for the Home Secretary insisted this has always been the language used by the office.

Speaking to Express.co.uk the spokesperson said: "The Home Office has always used the term 'irregular migration'.

"For example in the irregular migration statistics that are released by the Department."

Labour’s new measures have come in for some sore criticism from leading Conservatives after the cancellation of the Rwanda scheme and the decision to end the contract which saw asylum seekers housed on the Stockholm Bibby barge.

Former home secretary James Cleverly claimed Labour had already worsened the issue of small boats crossings.

The shadow home secretary said: "The reality is everybody knows, including the people smugglers, that the small boat problem is going to get worse, indeed has already got worse under Labour because they have no deterrent."

He continued: "The fact there is now no safe third country to return people to who cannot be returned home means that we ask, where is she going to send the people who come here from countries like Afghanistan or Iraq, in Syria?

"Has she started negotiations on returns agreements with the Taliban, or the ayatollahs of Iran, or Assad in Syria?

"And if she's not going to send those that arrived here on small boats to Rwanda, which local authorities will she be sending people to?

"We were closing hotels when I was in government and I wonder which local authorities will be receiving those asylum seekers - if not Rwanda, will it be Rochdale or Romford or Richmond?"