- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Pooja Shrivastava
TV HOST Adil Ray has faced online backlash over his tweet in which he slammed home secretary Priti Patel for joining a police raid.
The Good Morning Britain star took to Twitter to post a picture of the home secretary, calling her out for ‘posing for a photo opp’ while out on an operation with the National Crime Agency (NCA) in east London last week.
“Priti Patel’s parents & mine were told to leave Uganda & Kenya, in some cases to save their lives. After much protest (at one point they wanted to dump them on the Falklands) UK let them in. To think years later a daughter of that generation would pose for a photo opp like this,” tweeted Ray.
Priti Patel’s parents & mine were told to leave Uganda & Kenya, in some cases to save their lives. After much protest (at one point they wanted to dump them on the Falklands) UK let them in. To think years later a daughter of that generation would pose for a photo opp like this. pic.twitter.com/v3I9PpRQDx
— Adil Ray OBE 💙 (@adilray) May 20, 2021
The image showed Patel watching two police officers walking a man away from a house in handcuffs. She was at a raid in Woodford Green and Bushwood when police arrested two men on suspicion of illegally moving migrants.
Ray’s tweet prompted criticism from social media users including Conservative MPs Guy Opperman and Simon Clarke who called his post “misleading” and “unfair.”
In follow-up posts Ray stood by his statement by pointing out Patel promoted her attendance of the arrests as part of her “new plan for immigration” and that the photo “is designed to demonise migrants.”
In the Home Secretary’s own words this is a “new plan for immigration”. A new plan should involve reopening legal routes for migrants and asylum seekers who travel here, which is their right. So they don’t become victims of ‘smugglers’. The photo is designed to demonise migrants
— Adil Ray OBE 💙 (@adilray) May 20, 2021
