Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the Labour MPs facing consequences over WhatsApp group comments

Over in the UK, a second Labour MP has apologised for comments made in a WhatsApp chat after Andrew Gwynne was dismissed over comments he sent to the same group.

Burnley MP Oliver Ryan said in a statement that the comments he made were 'unacceptable' and he regretted not speaking up about them sooner. 

UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to get to Devin Gray shortly. He is
our UK correspondent and he is with us now, Gevin,
good evening hither Ryan tell me UK border staff have
arrested nearly four thousand migrants what for.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well working illegally in the UK. And those four thousand
have been arrested just in the last seven months, so
quite an astonishing figure. With four hundred businesses have been raided,
a lot of activity in nail bars, car washes and takeaways.
Ran I can tell you now it wouldn't have taken
a genius to work out that those three particular sectors

(00:38):
probably have quite a high level of illegal workers. I
mean whenever I passed them, you know, you just see
them and you think it looks like no documentation and
I think it's all cash in hand stuff, So perhaps
that's no surprise they were targeted. In total, three nine
hundred and thirty were taken, and many of those, we're

(00:58):
told were on small boats or small boat migrants that
had come over to the UK illegally or those who
had overstayed visas. And of course this cash in hand culture,
living often in squalid conditions in large groups together, is
you know, really awful for them, but all for our
economy and society. Frankly, so it's going to be interesting

(01:21):
what happens though, because the firms that hire these illegal
workers can be fined up to one hundred and thirty
thousand New Zealand dollars per worker, and indeed there have
been some one thousand and ninety civil penalty notices since
last July. July. That word is important because that's when
the new government came in and you know that said

(01:43):
they were going to get tough on immigration. Now the
figures coming in still are still very high, but at
least this does suggest something's being done about it. It
comes as MP's debate the Border bills today that will
give immigration officers counter terror style powers to flush out traffickers.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I was going to say, is this the result of
some crackdown or is it just an an annual number
that they're releasing and updating? It sounds like what It
sounds like a bit of both. I suppose is it?
Is it more? Are they targeting and getting to more
then previously?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yes, they are. The figures You're right, it is the
release of some figures early, no doubt, to boost the
government's reputation, but the figures are definitely considerably up. And
then of course that makes the question, well, what were
the last lot doing in power when you know, even
I could spot that these industries could have done with that.

(02:37):
Of course, there are no ID cards here in the UK,
so it's not straightforward. If they do turn up unannounced,
you know, people are perfectly entitled to say, well, I
haven't got any idea on me actually, so you know
what do you want? And that's been part of the
problem in the past. But yes, numbers definitely up.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Another laboring p apologizing for comments made in a whatsep group.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yes, and one begins to wonder just how far the
tentacles of this WhatsApp group are stretching. So it's a
newspaper here that has managed to find a WhatsApp group
where a string of offensive and abusive messages were shared.
Now it appears that many of those on the WhatsApp
group are in the Labor Party, the current party of government,

(03:20):
and their MPs and other senior figures. It's reported already
one has been sacked as Health Minister, and now we
learn of a second Labor MP who has apologized over message,
saying and I quote that they were completely unacceptable and
he regretted not speaking out at the time. He's the
Burnley MP, Oliver Ryan. He follows the Health Minister Andrew Gwynn,

(03:44):
but it's Andrew Gwinn who had to step down as
a minister. Opposition MPs are saying, look, the comments are
so well. First of all, they are very ageist, having
a laugh at elderly people. They're actually quite homophobe big
there's talk about although I haven't seen the relevant once,
there's talk about others yet to be released which are

(04:05):
quite potentially quite racist. So you know, I'm afraid it's
a real mix. And for this to be a WhatsApp
group potentially of MPs of the party of Government is
obviously deeply damaging. And the opposition MPs and now saying
all these people need to be rooted out and sacked
and nothing else will do.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
And do we know exactly Obviously you're making a decision.
I'm assuming not to say what the what the details are,
but is do we know exactly what is in the
group or are we just getting reporting that it's really bad?

Speaker 2 (04:37):
No, we do know. I am kind of just sparing
because I think people will be quite offended by some
of it. But for instance, it is talking about how
the first time a black MP faced off the Prime
Minister at Prime Minister's Questions times there was a whole
loaded debate about that, including one saying, well, it's some

(04:58):
equal opportunities dead or some such thing. I've toned it down,
but you know it really is. It's just sneery stuff
like that.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
From the Labor Party. Goodness me, all right, a real
first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Sit
to be Thrown Away has been sold at auction.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, isn't that amazing? And it's something that belonged to
a gentleman. It was deceased and it was in a
pile of stuff to be thrown from his home, and
well you can imagine the delight of an auctioneer who
was going through the belongings of this man to then

(05:37):
have discovered something of quite such value. Now, these first
edition books are incredibly rare nowadays. Sadly people either know
their value and have stored them, or are you know,
just to have thrown them away accidentally and they're in
the bin. But this looks like it's been sold now
to an auction actually over the weekend and it came

(06:00):
minute some forty three thousand New Zealand dollars and this
was down in painting in the Southwest England, with apparently
very very great bidding on the phone, online and in
the room, and was considerably higher than it was thought.
The book, which incidentally was the Harry Potter and the

(06:20):
Philosopher Stone first edition was just of a print run
of five hundred copies and was among three hundred distributed
to public libraries. Incidentally, the misspelling of the philosophers the
word philosophers on the back of the copy was among
the things that helped the auctioneer identify it as a
first edition.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Lucky mistake, Devin, thank you very much for Thatkevin Gray
are UK correspondent with us.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live

Speaker 1 (06:49):
To news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.