Suella Braverman confronted by Holocaust survivor over 'invasion' rhetoric

The home secretary has said she will not apologise for her language, after a Holocaust survivor criticised her for describing migrants as an "invasion".

Joan Salter, 83, confronted Suella Braverman during a meeting in her Fareham constituency on Friday.

She said the home secretary's rhetoric reminded her of the language the Nazis used to justify murdering her family.

But Ms Braverman said her language demonstrated the "scale of the problem" with illegal migration.

In footage of the exchange, provided by the charity Freedom from Torture, Ms Salter said: "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?"

Ms Braverman thanked Ms Slater for her question and said she "shared a huge amount of concern and sympathy" over the "challenge" of illegal immigration.

She said her own parents were not born in Britain and "owe everything to this country".

However, 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 applauded by the audience.

The Home Office said a one-minute video of the incident, shared by Freedom from Torture on social media, was "heavily edited and doesn't reflect the full exchange".

"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," a spokesman said.

However, the charity's chief executive, Sonya Sceats, said it would not remove the short clip from social media, adding that a video of the full exchange was available on the charity's website.

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

"She has used language she should be ashamed of, and we won't be pressured into helping her hide it."

Shortly after being reappointed as home secretary in October, Ms Braverman referred to her job as being "about stopping the invasion on our southern coast", in reference to the number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Ms Braverman has not used the word "swarm" publicly but it has been used by other politicians including the then-prime minister David Cameron and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

Ms Salter, who has been recognised with an MBE for her work on Holocaust education, was born Fanny Zimetbaum in 1940 in Brussels to Polish Jewish parents.

When she was three months old Belgium was invaded by the Nazis and she escaped to France with her mother and sister.

She was later taken by the Red Cross to the US in 1943 before being reunited with her parents in 1947 in London, where she has lived since.