Jacob Rees-Mogg's comments about British concentration camps in Africa resurface

As the home secretary Priti Patel announced plans that could see refugees in the UK being shipped to Rwanda to be “processed”, politician Jacob Rees-Mogg’s controversial thoughts on British concentration camps have resurfaced.

The Conservative government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda has been widely criticised, with the Archbishop of Canterbury saying it is “against the judgement of God”.

But, as a political Twitter account Momentum pointed out, Conservative members have “got form” for supporting such controversial schemes as they reposted a clip of Tory Rees-Mogg sharing controversial views.

In the clip from 2019 during an appearance on BBC Question Time, Rees-Mogg attempted to justify the British use of concentration camps in South Africa during the Boer War as being for people’s own protection.

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Rees-Mogg claimed: “South African concentration camps had exactly the same mortality rate as existed in Glasgow at the time.

“So they're not a good thing, but where else were people going to live when there was all-out war? The Boer War had people put in camps for their protection.”

When questioned on his controversial comments by fellow panellist, Grace Blakeley, Rees-Mogg replied: “I'm afraid you're confusing concentration camps with Hitler's extermination camps.”

Given the government’s announcement, people are horrified by the comments made, but some appear unsurprised that a Tory such as Rees-Mogg holds such views.

An MP's attempt to defend the government’s Rwanda scheme backfired almost instantly as receipts of the government criticising the east African country last year resurfaced.

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