Holocaust survivor confronted Suella Braverman to say: your hateful language has consequences

The Home Office has been accused of bullying behaviour towards a charity that works with torture survivors, after seeking to remove a video of a courageous Holocaust survivor confronting the Home Secretary over her language towards refugees.

Video footage, that you can see  above shared by the charity Freedom from Torture, emerged over the weekend of Suella Braverman being questioned by Joan Salter, 83, during a constituency meeting in Fareham on Friday.

Ms Salter, who was made an MBE for her work on Holocaust education, likened Ms Braverman’s despicable language on migrants attempting to cross the English Channel to that used by the Nazis.

Salter said: “I am a child survivor of the Holocaust.

“In 1943, I was forced to flee my birthplace in Belgium and went across war-torn Europe and dangerous seas until I finally was able to come to the UK in 1947.

“When I hear you using words against refugees like ‘swarms’ and an ‘invasion’, I am reminded of the language used to dehumanise and justify the murder of my family and millions of others.

“Why do you find the need to use that kind of language?”

In the video, Braverman thanked Ms Salter for her question, and said she "shared a huge amount of concern and sympathy" over the "challenge" of illegal immigration, adding that her own parents were not born in Britain.

She added: "There is a huge problem that we have right now when it comes to illegal migration, the scale of which we have not known before.

"I won't apologise for the language that I have used to demonstrate the scale of the problem."

Ms Braverman's answer was greeted with applause from the audience but has since been condemned by many others.

Freedom From Torture has also said that the Home Office has taken the unusual step of issuing a public statement about the incident on social media, confirming it had asked the human rights charity  to remove the video. In a statement posted on Twitter on Saturday, the Home Office said: “The Home Secretary attended an event last night and took questions, including on immigration policy.

“Footage of a conversation with a Holocaust survivor is circulating online. The video has been heavily edited and doesn’t reflect the full exchange.”

It went on to add: “Since the footage misrepresents the interaction about a sensitive area of policy, we have asked the organisation who posted the video to take it down.”

Freedom From Torture chief executive Sonya Sceats said the charity will not remove the short clip from social media, and pointed out that a video of the full exchange is available on its website.https://www.freedomfromtorture.org/holocaust-survivor-confronted-suella-braverman-to-say-your-hateful-language-has-consequences

Sceats said: “Suella Braverman refused to apologise for offensive and dehumanising language when challenged by a Holocaust survivor at a party meeting.

“Not only that, but the Home Office has demanded we remove the footage.

“As an organisation providing therapy to torture survivors who feel targeted by her language and who know first-hand where such dehumanising language can lead, we will not do so.”

The reaction to  Joan calling out Suella Braverman’s anti-refugee rhetoric face-to-face has been huge.   The news is full of reports of Suella Braverman’s cruelty, and 5 million people have now heard Joan’s story on social media. 

Suella Braverman response to Ms Salter isn't all that surprising,less than a week into her tenure as Home Secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Ms Braverman referred to her job as being "about stopping the invasion on our southern coast". including saying it was her ' dream'  to be able to deport migrants to Rwanda using a controversial asylum agreement.People like Suella like to point to their parents or grandparents immigration status, as if that excuses their deplorable attitudes; it doesn't, and if anything makes those attitudes appear even worse.Her hardline stance on immigration alongside her inflammatory comments about migration has also seen her branded as ' Enoch Btaverman' in the way she is stoking racism.  She is totally unfit for office and should never have been appointed in the first  place, the politics she represents are cruel. inhumane, extreme and reactionary. 

The attempt by the Home Office to persuade Freedom from Torture to take down the video is simply outrageous, because it seems like politicisation of the civil service which is stepping in an attempt to salvage Suella Braverman's reputation.

The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Monday: “You’ll know the UK’s record on providing a safe haven to tens of thousands of people, whether it’s people from Afghanistan or other countries and we continue to be proud of that record.”

Asked twice if the PM agreed with Braverman’s language, the spokesperson said: “The Home Office put out a statement on this. I don’t have anything to add to that.”

Thank you Joan Salter,for speaking truth to power. and rereminding us that language is so important. We must  continue to stand against hate speech and the dehumanising of people, any people, and whoever mutters it.