Rylan Clark’s immigration rant on This Morning was wrong – and dangerous

I’ve become used to anti-migration rhetoric and unchecked generalisations about asylum seekers permeating British society, but I can honestly say I didn’t expect to see it on daytime television. 

But yesterday, on This Morning, presenter Rylan Clark offered his perspective on the current migrant debate. 

In a segment which you’d be forgiven for thinking was a campaign advert for Reform UK, Clark parroted a number of talking points I’m more accustomed to hearing from right-wingers.  

Rylan said, after acknowledging that ‘legal immigrants’ help the country thrive, that a narrative persists that ‘it seems, ‘welcome, come on in’.

‘’Here’s the hotel, here’s the phone, here’s the iPad, here’s the NHS in reception of your hotel, here’s three meals a day, here’s a games room in the hotel, have a lovely time, welcome’. And then there’s people that have lived here all their lives, that are struggling.’

Hit by backlash, mainly from his own fans, the former X Factor star seemed to double down on his arguments – writing on social media that ‘you can still be pro immigration and against illegal routes,’ and not acknowledging some of the factual inaccuracies in his statements, like the fact migrants aren’t routinely given iPads. 

Now you might not think it matters. Public figures have all sorts of opinions about all sorts of matters, why is it so significant that Rylan Clark has spoken up on this?

Firstly, it matters that this is daytime TV. 

It is the cosy, harmless soundtrack to our mid-mornings as we patter about the house, doing chores or maybe procrastinating during the work day. 

It is background noise, something easy to watch – and not where we expect to hear this kind of rhetoric.

It matters if the average Brit is hearing misinformation and generalisations about foreigners.

What does it say about where our public consciousness is as a nation if it is totally normal to perpetuate stereotypes about asylum seekers alongside segments on celebrity gossip and the best trench coats for autumn?

Rylan Clark has come to be a pillar of British TV.

You’d struggle to go a day or so without seeing his face pop up on a channel somewhere. 

We saw him rise to stardom on X Factor. We even watch him watch TV on celebrity Gogglebox. Like a friend, we’ve even been introduced to his mum.

And the latest leg of his career on daytime TV has cemented his status as a British sweetheart – one of the faces we trust and return to share a daily cuppa with. 

So to hear someone like that using the sort of rhetoric you get from the likes of Nigel Farage at the sort of anti-migrant rallies that has instilled fear into people like me feels both alarming and a betrayal.

It feels like finding out that that friendly neighbour who you’ve shared small talk with all your life actually sees foreigners as the enemy. 

And the most worrying part for me is that, given his platform and following, he has potentially reached a whole new group of people by spreading this kind of misinformation. 

These comments weren’t just about personal opinion.

Whether wittingly or not, Rylan Clark allowed himself to become a mouthpiece for the kind of rhetoric that pits foreigners as the enemy whilst allowing those in power to conveniently escape blame – and that is an incredibly damaging and misleading claim to be left unchecked, particularly on a much-loved and trusted platform like This Morning. 

Part of his argument seemed to be that Britain already has too many problems and that letting in more people before we have helped the British people is counterintuitive. He said, ‘there’s people who have lived here all their lives. They are struggling. They are homeless…there are people living on the streets.’

That is a scandal, but it is not the fault of asylum seekers housed in hotels that people in Britain have been plundered into poverty. 

It is not the fault of the people arriving on small boats that the cost of living means children can’t afford to eat or that families can’t keep a roof over their heads.

To even accidentally appear like you’re endorsing a perspective that pits British people and foreigners against each other – with the latter to blame for all the nation’s problems – is incredibly dangerous.

Not only does it render anyone perceived to be foreign, like me, unsafe but it also legitimises extreme anti-migration ideology as the normal concerns of the layperson instead of a climate of hostility that has been whipped up by politicians to win votes and profit from division. 

It is little surprise then that the likes of Tommy Robinson have praised Rylan Clark for his comments, writing on X that his words were the most common sense ever spoken on ITV’s This Morning.

What do you think of Rylan’s comments? Have your say in the comments belowComment Now

That’s right, the same Tommy Robinson who is famed for his extreme Islamophobic views is endorsing something said on live TV by a national treasure.

Surely, that, if nothing else, should send alarm bells about Clark’s comments and make the much-loved star pause for thought. 

Ultimately, though, Rylan’s rant is merely a symptom of a wider societal problem. 

It seems that the kind of unchecked misinformation and damaging rhetoric that might have once been considered taboo is now fair game on mainstream platforms. 

From painting flags on roundabouts to protesting outside hotels to now spouting anti-migrant rhetoric on breakfast television, this nation is becoming an increasingly hostile and divided place.  

And as usual it won’t be celebrities or politicians who pay the price.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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What do you think of Rylan’s comments? Have your say in the comments below