Backlash as Lily tells migrant: I apologise on behalf of Britain
LILY Allen reacted angrily last night after being criticised online for a tearful apology she made ‘on behalf of my country’ to a teenage refugee in Calais.
The singer wept as she told the boy: ‘The English in particular have put you in danger ... I’m sorry for what we have put you through.’
Miss Allen, 31, took time out from recording her new album to volunteer in a charity warehouse at the squalid Jungle camp, where 10,000 migrants live while trying to find ways to sneak into Britain.
The Afghan, who said he was 13 and that his father lives in Birmingham, has been there for two months. Miss Allen told him: ‘It just seems that, at three different intervals in this young boy’s life, the English in particular have put you in danger.
‘We’ve bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country. I apologise on behalf of my country. I’m sorry for what we have put you through.’
She wiped away tears at the end of the exchange, broadcast on BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire programme yesterday. She asked the boy why he was trying to jump on lorries to get to Britain – given that he may have a legal right to be in the UK with his father. He replied: ‘ The legal process is very slow, you wait for at least three or four months. It’s too slow. The way I am trying works better.’
But the singer’s remarks led to her receiving a large amount of abuse online, with some viewers claiming her apology was ‘ridiculous’.
Richard Hughes wrote on Twitter: ‘You should be ashamed of yourself, apologising on behalf of a nation and its people. Just who the hell do you think you are?’
Martin James tweeted: ‘Guaranteed the migrants won’t be coming to an expensive house near you – they’ll be coming to a council flat near me.’
Jaime Carter called her a ‘champagne socialist’ and said: ‘ Unlike the majority of us, you can afford every little thing private – don’t you DARE apologise on my behalf.’
Another user said: ‘Can I formally apologise on behalf of Lily Allen for having an ego so completely out of control she thinks she represents other people.’ The singer hit back by tweeting that she was only say- ing sorry to a ‘helpless child for the part this country has played in contributing to his dire situation’.
And to one user who complained, ‘ You don’t represent me’, she replied: ‘I don’t want to.’
As internet users heaped further abuse on Miss Allen yesterday, the mother of two spent hours replying. Philip Henry tweeted: ‘I don’t remember giving you permission to apologise to the Jungle on my behalf, you are an absolute disgrace, go live there!’ She wrote back: ‘It was compassion and basic manners. Stop being so hateful.’
Ministers have faced criticism over the slow progress to rescue unaccompanied child migrants from the camp. This week, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said those with links to the UK should be identified and removed before work to demolish the Jungle begins.
She vowed that the first group of 100 unaccompanied youngsters in northern France, less than an hour from Britain, will come here in the next few weeks. The French authorities are poised to start dismantling the camp, possibly next week, after president Francois Hollande said it would be removed by the end of the year and its inhabitants moved elsewhere in the country.
France’s top court yesterday approved plans to shut down unlicensed cafes and stalls in the Jungle, saying they were unhygienic and a ‘serious fire hazard’.
It has also been claimed cafes were used for smuggling activities.
Miss Rudd’s pledge was a victory for campaigners and the Daily Mail, which backed calls for ministers to do more to help child refugees.
Yesterday it emerged that some 18 youngsters with a legal right to live in the UK have gone missing from the Jungle since their cases were raised with the Home Office.
In July, charities handed the Government the names of 178 lone children at the camp who had family in Britain – meaning they were eligible to come here.
But Labour MP Stella Creasy yesterday told Prime Minister Theresa May that one in ten of the children – all thought to be Syrians fleeing the war – had vanished. It is feared they may have risked their lives trying to reach the UK by stowing away on trucks or fallen into the clutches of people smuggling gangs.
‘Who the hell do you think you are?’