Top Tory James Cleverly rants about Banksy boat as he calls Glastonbury stunt 'vile'

James Cleverly has slammed the Banksy migrant boat at Glastonbury as 'vile' in a furious on-air rant.

An inflatable boat mock-up featuring dummies of migrants was released into the festival crowd at the weekend during a performance by rock band Idles. The Tory Home Secretary claimed today that the small boat artwork was "a celebration of the loss of life in the Channel".

Idles said the demonstration was devised by Banksy and they were not aware it had happened until after the set had finished. Later images taken on Saturday showed the artwork returning for Little Simz’ Pyramid Stage slot.

James Cleverly described the stunt as 'vile' in a furious on-air rant

Criticising the Banksy piece this morning, he told Sky News: "There are a bunch of people there joking and celebrating about criminal actions which costs lives, people die. People die in the Mediterranean, they die in the channel. This is not funny. It is vile. It is a celebration of the loss of life in the channel."

Asked if the boat could have been a commentary on the Conservatives' failure to stop the boats despite their repeated pledges to do so, he said: "Our ability to sort that problem out has been hampered every stage by the Labour Party who aspire to border control. They know that had they supported us, they voted over 130 times to prevent us taking greater control of our borders, the hypocrisy of the left on this issue is breathtaking and to joke about it, to celebrate it at a pop festival when there have been children dying in the channel is completely unacceptable."

Labour's Jonathan Ashworth was also asked on the Sky News breakfast show about the Banksy boat, and outlined Labour's plans to smash the smuggling gangs. He said: "I'll make a broader point, in that we've clearly got to stop this vile trade in smuggling people across the Channel. Labour's got a really detailed plan to do that, a proper cross-border security force to really go after these gangs.

"We're going to use terrorist-style laws to really go after them, because it's not working at the moment. I think since Rishi Sunak made his big promise we've had 50,000 people cross the Channel - we've got to fix this, we've got to go after these awful gangs that are smuggling people and we've got a plan to do that." He also described the Tories' Rwanda plan as a "gimmick" and criticised the millions already spent on the scheme, saying it would be "cheaper to put up people in the Ritz in Paris".