‘Harsh but fair’ – Italy’s far-right deputy PM Matteo Salvini praises Sunak’s illegal migration billAngela Giuffrida
Italy’s deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, has praised Rishi Sunak’s anti-immigration measures as “harsh but fair”.
In a post on Instagram, Salvini, leader of the far-right League, quoted a tweet by Sunak, translated into Italian, in which Sunak said: “If you arrive illegally in the UK, you can’t claim asylum; you can’t benefit from our modern slavery protections; you can’t make spurious human rights claims; you can’t stay”.
Beneath the post, Salvini wrote:
Words from the UK prime minister. Harsh but fair.
Instagram post Photograph: Matteo Salvini’s InstagramSalvini, who turned 50 today, will attend a cabinet meeting later today in Cutro, the Calabrian town close to where 72 people are confirmed to have died in a shipwreck.
The meeting comes as debate rages over whether the immigration policies of Giorgia Meloni’s government contributed to the tragedy. The cabinet is expected to toughen measures against people smugglers while loosening bureaucracy for foreign workers to enter Italy via legal routes.
Matteo Salvini. Photograph: Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse/REX/Shutterstock