A caller argued there is a “disconnect” between the political class and what the public wants.
Iain Dale shocked by caller calling for mass deportations
LBC host Iain Dale was left “stunned” after a caller claimed Britain will “remain almost ungovernable” until there are “mass deportations” of immigrants. A northerner phoned Mr Dale’s radio show to express his feelings on immigration in the wake of dreadful racist riots in Northern Ireland following a horrific stabbing attack in the city.
Sudanese national Hadi Alodid, 30, appeared before Belfast’s magistrates’ court on Wednesday, charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie after a horrendous incident on Monday night. Alodid entered the UK in 2023 via Ireland then Paris and was granted leave to remain until 2028.
Addressing the unrest sparked in Belfast, the caller, named Mike, said: “This country will remain almost ungovernable until we have mass deportations… consistently voted Conservative, we voted for Brexit, the politicians just seem to turn round, throw it all back in our faces and say, ‘here you go, have record levels of immigration instead’.”
“And I think the very base of this whole thing, that is this problem. Just a massive disconnect between the political class and the people of this country who have never given any consent to this, and there’s certainly no mandate for the scale of immigration we’ve seen into this country.”
Iain Dale was left stunned by a caller on LBC (Image: LBC)
Responding to the caller, Mr Dale said: “But you can’t go as far as certainly Restore have gone, and indeed Reform have gone, I think too far on this too, to deport people who are here perfectly legally.”
The caller asked: “You mean end indefinite leave to remain?”.
Mr Dale replied, “Well, you can do that for future people, but you can’t do that for people who have already got it,” adding, “I mean that would be outrageous, surely?”
With a simple reply, the caller asserted “course you can”, to which Mr Dale interrupted: “So people who are here perfectly legally, you think should be deported?”
The radio host shrugged his shoulders and smiled after making his point, adding: “From a basic humanity point of view, from a fairness point of view, you can’t suddenly tell people who’ve got a perfect legal right to be here that ‘oh, we’re changing the rules now, so you’ll have to go’… I mean, you cannot do that…”
Quietly, the caller replies “you can Iain”, to which Mr Dale, shrugging again, said you could but asked “is that really the kind of country you want to live in?”.
The caller was calm in their response and simply answer: “Yes”.
A protest against a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex. (Image: Getty)
Migrants are rescued in the Channel (Image: Getty)
The exchange between the pair was highlighted on X by one user who claimed Mr Dale seemed “stunned” by the “calm caller” and that it was “well worth a listen” as it showed “the gap between Westminster and the rest of the country has rarely been clearer”.
Commenting on the post about the video, which has had more than 8,000 likes on X, one person said: “I am so fed up of people saying it’s not fair to deport millions. What’s not fair is British taxpayer and voters being ignored for the last couple of decades.”
Another added that they felt Mr Dale was “not even listening to the man on the phone.”
Someone else made a point from their own personal experience, noting: “The incomprehension (by Mr Dale) is peculiar. I was an expat/immigrant in a country who did something very similar – they changed the rules and I was no longer eligible to remain.
“We were given 1 year to leave. We did so. It was frustrating, but it was entirely within the rights of that state.”