UK Home Secretary May strikes hard tone on refugees, drone strikes

In a speech that one commentator described as "hard right," British Home Secretary Theresa May said that immigrants in the UK offer "close to zero" economic benefits and questioned those who challenged UK drone strikes on British members of the Islamic State group.

"To those who question the morality of RAF strikes against terrorists in Syria – and we recently heard those opinions expressed in Parliament – I say these people have taken the conscious decision to make themselves our enemies," May said at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester. 

"They plan to attack our country and kill our citizens. And they need to know – even if they are British nationals – that if they plan to do harm to this country, if they want to take the lives of British citizens, we will make sure that they have no place to hide."

While highlighting the refugees that the Syrian civil war has created, May said that providing refuge to Syrians, including the 20,000 that the UK has said it will take, is not the best solution. 

"The best way of helping the most people is not by bringing relatively small numbers of refugees to this country, but by working with the vast numbers who remain in the region," she said.

She also suggested that the UK could play a stronger role behind the scenes to find a political solution to the civil war.

"We must work to get the states that sponsor the different armies and militias around the negotiating table," May said. "We must do what we can to support friendly states and moderate elements within other states in the region."

While some have argued that this is a "great age of migration" and that the UK should fulfil its moral duty to help people in need, May strongly signalled that the government would further tighten controls on immigration.

“Even if we could manage all the consequences of mass immigration, Britain does not need net migration in the hundreds of thousands every year. Of course, immigrants plug skills shortages and it is right that we should try to attract the best talent in the world, but not every person coming to Britain right now is a skilled electrician, engineer or doctor.”

Expert evidence, she said, showed that while controlled and selective immigration did provide benefits, “at best the net economic and fiscal effect of high immigration is close to zero”. 

There was a strong reaction to May's speech on Twitter, with many users questioning her language around migration and refugees.