Political row over migrant deaths as Labour says the UK must make it EASIER for people to enter

Labour demanded the Government make it easier for people to legitimately enter the UK today as the horrific deaths of 39 migrants found dead in a lorry sparked a political row. 

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said that people with a ‘legal claim’ to live in Britain should be helped to come to Britain, following the grim discovery in Essex.

She used a political interview on Sunday morning to say that ‘you are more likely to be helped by a nurse or a doctor from a migrant background than be behind them in the queue’.

But at the same time Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan suggested that failures to tackle trafficking were partly as a result of the current impasse over Brexit.

The bodies of eight women and 31 men in the refrigerated trailer of a lorry on an industrial estate in Grays in the early hours of Wednesday.

Ms Abbott told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that security needed to be improved at East Coast ports, before adding: ‘I think what you have to do is lose the assumption that immigrants are a threat and migrants are always a problem. 

The bodies of eight women and 31 men in the refrigerated trailer of a lorry on an industrial estate in Grays in the early hours of Wednesday

‘You have to get the information from people who are seeking to come here. It’s a different type of process. 

‘It’s a different type of attitude but it’s making it easier for people to come where they may have a legal claim to come because they’ve got family here, it’s about safe and legal routes.’

All of the victims have since been moved from the vehicle in Tilbury Docks to Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for post-mortem examinations to be carried out.

Essex Police are now working on the largest mass fatality victim identification process in its history, having previously said all were from China.

Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan suggested that failures to tackle trafficking were partly as a result of the current impasse over Brexit

Investigators will look at tattoos, scars and belongings, including jewellery and clothing, with each of the victims said to have had some kind of bag.

More than 500 exhibits have been collected, including mobile phones, which will be downloaded and interrogated for any messages that could give clues to the identity of the victims or how they came to be in the back of the trailer.

Detectives are investigating a ‘wider conspiracy’ after claims surfaced that the lorry could have been part of a convoy of three carrying around 100 people.

Culture Secretary Mrs Morgan was asked about the tragedy when she appeared on Ridge on Sunday this morning.

‘It is incumbent on all of us to make sure that we are aware of the risks that people are running with their lives,’ she said.

‘But more than that, it is about cutting down obviously on those who engage in this awful trade, all the way through the chain, both here in the UK but also back in the countries where people are being trafficked from and making sure we’ve got agencies, both here in the UK but also working with agencies abroad and that obviously will continue always to cut down on this trade. 

‘Going back to what we have just been discussing, this issue about people trafficking, modern slavery, is a big priority, and yes of course it is getting attention in government. 

‘But how much more attention could we be giving it or climate change or any other major issues if we had not spent three and a half years arguing about the UK leaving the EU, if we had just got on and done it? 

• Lorry driver, 25-year-old Maurice ‘Mo’ Robinson, from Northern Ireland, is due to appear in court on Monday charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering. Three other people arrested in connection with the deaths have been released on bail, Essex Police said on Sunday.