As a well-informed MP on the frontline of the debate, Tony Vaughan’s views are particularly unwelcome to government
Before Monday morning, Folkestone and Hythe’s backbench Labour MP Tony Vaughan was best known for his slick, pro-government Instagram reels.
In one, he dives into the brown sea off the Kent coast, ignoring a no swimming sign, to show constituents that Labour has made progress tackling water pollution; a few minutes later, he emerges in his trunks, as the 007 theme tune plays. In another, he is filmed by a drone striding along the shingle, wearing Ray-Ban aviators and a crisp white shirt, praising the government’s investment in coastal flood defences.
But this week, his social media output shifted from party loyalist to something more combative. On the morning the government announced its much-trailed changes to the asylum system, Vaughan began articulating his fierce opposition to them on every available platform.
“The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. We absolutely need immigration controls. And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation,” he wrote on X. “The rhetoric around these reforms encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities.”
