The UK embassy in Brussels this week responded to Belgian Vlaams Belang chairman Tom Van Grieken, who had written the embassy demanding an explanation for Britain revoking Flemish MP Filip Dewinter’s electronic travel authorization in mid-May. Dewinter was one of the conservatives prevented from entering Britain to attend the Unite the Kingdom rally two weeks ago.
Van Grieken said the move set a dangerous precedent. “If MPs are denied entry to a friendly European country because their views do not please the government, then democracy turns into a dictatorship.”
The responding letter from Ambassador Anne Sherriff—apparently oblivious to the irony of it coming from a country that has received over 200,000 illegal migrants crossing the English Channel since 2018—opened:
Controlling who enters the country is a fundamental responsibility of any government, and one the UK takes seriously. It is a tool for protecting the safety, security, and cohesion of our society.
The ambassador also emphasized freedom of speech as one of Britain’s “defining values,” with the caveat that “that protection has its limits, for example where speech promotes hatred and incitement”
The British response might just have proven Dewinter correct, when he commented earlier on being barred from entering Britain.
“I should have torn up my passport, and sailed from the Belgian coast to Dover in an inflatable boat and registered there as a political refugee,” Dewinter wrote on X. “Then, presumably, I would have been received with open arms, offered a hotel, and granted refugee status.”
