TalkTV migrant coverage sparks furious backlash: 'Shouldn't get away with it!'

TalkTV's latest migrant crisis coverage sparked huge backlash from viewers as one broadcaster fumed: "Sink the boats for all I care!" On Alex Phillips' latest show (August 9), comedian Paul Cox aired his own controversial views on illegal immigration in an explosive rant, before insisting those on the left have a "form of mental illness".

Speaking live on air, Cox fumed: "I don't really care what the percentage is. We get distracted by the percentage. If someone says to me it's only 3% of illegal migrants in illegal migrant hotels that are doing the raping and the sexual assaulting, I don't care. I don't care if it's one on every boat. You know, burst the boats, let them sink in the sea for all I care.

"If we are importing that level of disgusting criminality, it has no place on these shores. We have our own problems, we don't need to import it. I'm not surprised people are protesting in the numbers they're protesting in."

He went on: "You've got people like Keir Starmer gaslighting the whole nation, saying he's going to smash the gangs and get this under control and the problem's not that big, and he's got a whole cohort of lunatics around him parroting the sort of things that he says. And at the same time there are also people protesting in favour of illegal immigrants. They are mental."

Phillips chimed in: "Who are these people? They are mental, leftism is a form of mental illness, isn't it?"

As Cox replied: "I don't know if it is leftism or if it is just mental illness because who in their right mind wants to support this?"

But viewers weren't happy with the coverage, and the video was quickly deleted from TalkTV's X account. One viewer fumed: "Hmm. 'Let them sink for all I care', very similar to something someone else said. Can't put my finger on it."

Another echoed: "TalkTV deleting their awful tweet of Paul Cox saying 'sink the boats' - disgusting. Honestly the stuff people are allowed to say on TV these days is bonkers."

Someone else said: "No presenters should be allowed to get away with saying things like that!!!"

Another disagreed, however, writing: "I like this bloke!" while another posted: "Love what Alex has to say, talks complete sense and has a real passion about things that matter to all of us."