Kirstie Allsopp shared her thoughts over the current humanitarian crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Priti Patel has come under fire in recent days after the Home Secretary was accused of presiding over chaos after Ukrainian refugees arriving in Calais had not been given entry into Britain.
It comes after the UK government faced criticism over the number of visas that had been granted to Ukrainian refugees.
The Home Office says 300 visas have been issued since Russia invaded Ukraine – up from 50 on Sunday.
The figure comes amid confusion over whether access will be widened beyond the current schemes.
The two UK schemes announced so far require Ukrainians either to have family in the UK or have a designated UK sponsor for their application but only the family scheme is in operation so far.
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Taking to Twitter today, Kirstie, 50, addressed Priti and offered an alternative on the micro-blogging site.
In view of her 426,000 followers, the Channel 4 presenter tweeted: “Dear @pritipatel.
“How about simply asking Ukrainians wanting to escape to the UK to fill in the passenger locator form?
“Then you have all their info if you’re worried about ‘homeland security’ and you can get a shift on. You’re welcome.”
Kirstie replied: “Dear Sunny, my suggestion was a way of speeding up the desperately slow current visa process. But clearly, you’re determined to think ill of me. Oh well.”
She was swiftly inundated with messages of support, as Simon Worby said: “Why do you reply to people like that? I have made the decision instantly to block anyone I see throwing abuse like that irrespective of who it’s aimed at: as such Sunny is blocked by me now. If everyone did the same these people would simply be wailing into an abyss.”
Alan Lyons wrote: “Honestly Kirstie, I admire your commitment to attempting to sustain civil discourse, but experience has taught me on Twitter that when someone is as offensive as that, best just to block and move on!”
Ivan Finch added: “I disagree with Mrs Allsopp on a few things but she was right here. Plus the language used by Sunny was just uncalled for…”
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons on Monday, Priti twice claimed that she had set up a visa application centre (VAC) on the way to the French port to process applications from people fleeing the Russian invasion.
The Home Office later confirmed in a statement that the UK was “in the process” of setting up a VAC in France to process applications from Ukrainians referred to it by Border Force.
When questioned about the refugee crisis and that an estimated 1.5 million people have fled the country, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I’m not sure those numbers are right. But we are processing thousands as I speak to you.
“Clearly, this crisis is evolving the whole time and I’ve said before that the UK will be as generous as we possibly can be, and we intend to do that.”