Lily Allen’s Calais stunt defended by Diane Abbott after singer caused outrage by tearfully apologising ’on behalf of Britain’ for Jungle camp conditions
Shadow home secretary said she does not blame singer for speaking out against the squalid conditions faced by refugees
LILY Allen has been backed up by Diane Abbott after causing outrage by tearfully apologising “on behalf of my country” for the Calais Jungle.
The shadow home secretary said she does not blame the singer for speaking out against the squalid conditions faced by refugees at the camp.
Ms Allen cried and said sorry after meeting a 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan who had risked his life trying to board UK-bound lorries.
The 31-year-old, who lives in a £2million Notting Hill home, wept as she told 13-year-old Shamsher: “I’m sorry for what we put you through.”
But the stunt, filmed for BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show, sparked a backlash - with critics accusing the star, whose last UK chart entry was number 93 in 2014, of trying to boost her flagging career.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a British commander in Afghanistan in 2003, said: “What is she doing there? She clearly does not have any understanding of the situation.
“The refugee is in a safe country and the French have an obligation to look after him. I find it enormously insulting. She does not represent us.”
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The boy told Lily that his father lives in Birmingham, but it was reported that Hazrat Gul Sherin had illegally snuck into Britain in the back of a lorry to claim asylum after leaving his post as an Islamist commander.
The 49-year-old was a commander in the Islamist group Hezb-e Islami, led by the Butcher of Kabul, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
But this morning Ms Allen’s actions were supported by Labour MP Ms Abbott.
She told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "Lily Allen is a good woman. She saw the conditions in the camp and was reduced to tears.
“I do not blame her at all. If you guys went to the camp, you would be reduced to tears also.
"If that is what she felt and that is what she wanted to say then she is entitled to say it."
The Smile singer told the teenager, who had been camped at the Jungle on the edge of the northern French port city for two months: "It just seems that, at three different intervals in this young boy's life, the English in particular have put you in danger.
"We've bombed your country, put you in the hands of the Taliban and now put you in danger of risking your life to get into our country.
"I apologise on behalf of my country. I'm sorry for what we have put you through."
Yesterday, the first 14 child migrants arrived in Britain under a new scheme to bring youths with family already here to be reunited with them before the Jungle is demolished.