𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Home Secretary has been accused of being “condescending” on LBC as frustrated listeners asked whether the Labour frontbencher is capable of answering questions. Yvette Cooper appeared on Nick Ferrari’s breakfast show on Tuesday morning and was grilled over immigration issues but many were left frustrated by her answers.

Ferrari read out what he described as a “slew” of emails and texts sent in by listeners following her appearance on the station. One person said: “Is it me or does Yvette Cooper avoid answering just about every question? She’s exactly why the electorate don’t trust politicians.”

Another said: “Ms Cooper does not think, we the public, are entitled to know what the people we elect think.”

A third person questioned whether the Home Secretary is “completely unable” to give a “straight answer to any question”.

A fourth listener questioned whether she even held any opinions, while another said: “Yvette Cooper cannot answer a single question and it’s a condescending tone. It’s very irritating.”

A different person said Ms Cooper “seems a waste of air time and space”, while the final message read out by Ferrari said: “Don’t they understand? We need to hear some answers.”

Ferrari then said he would stop there but that he could “actually fill the next 10 minutes”.

The Home Secretary was on the LBC show to discuss new Government plans to ban foreign sex offenders from claiming asylum in the UK.

However, there are fears the proposal will fail because the criminals can still fight to stay in the country using the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

Ferrari twice pressed Ms Cooper on what would stop someone facing deportation from using ECHR to fight to stay in the UK.

“Well we do get further legal claims that people will put in,” she responded after he asked for a second time.

Ferrari interjected to say “I’ll take that as a no”, saying: “The Conservatives are right then when they said that the Human Rights Act can still be used for these people to block their attempted deportation?”

Ms Cooper said: “People can make claims as they’ve been able to do for a long time.”

She rejected Ferrari’s suggestion that the plan would have no effect or impact as “wrong” and highlighted the case of Clapham chemical attacker Abdul Ezedi, who was granted asylum despite being a convicted sex offender, as one that could be tackled under the law change.

Ms Cooper said: “At the time when he was granted asylum… There was a return agreement in place with his home country. I believe that was a case that could have been deported and it wasn’t. And it wasn’t because he was granted asylum and I think it was wrong he was granted asylum.”

She confirmed that the Government was “reviewing” how Article 8 of the ECHR is interpreted as part of the court system.

“We’re reviewing that at the moment, we do think there are ways to change the framework in the UK because we have had a series of cases where the Government disagrees with the court’s interpretation but we need to make sure we can reform that framework properly,” she said.

Ferrari also grilled Ms Cooper on Government plans to tackle asylum seekers ‘pretending to be gay’ to avoid deportation, migrant Channel crossing figures and whether she supported an EU Youth Mobility Scheme.