Senior Labour figures have reacted with dismay to the party’s response to calls by a shadow Tory minister for the deportation of immigrants living legally in the UK .

Katie Lam said their forced expulsion would make the country more “culturally coherent”.

Speaking to The Times, the shadow Home Office minister said: “Everybody who’s in this country illegally I think needs to go home.

“There are also a large number of people in this country who came here legally, but in effect shouldn’t have been able to do so. It’s not the fault of the individuals who came here, they just shouldn’t have been able to do so. They will also need to go home.

“What that will leave is a mostly but not entirely culturally coherent group of people.”

In a letter to Kemi Badenoch on Monday, Lib Dem leader Ed

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