Ed Balls delivered a stark warning on Good Morning Britain after Susanna Reid expressed disbelief that anti-migrant protesters could turn against volunteers saving lives at sea.
The presenters were discussing the intimidation of RNLI crews following the rescue of people from a dangerously overcrowded boat in the English Channel.
Reid questioned whether protesters opposing the rescue would refuse to help another person if they encountered them in danger.
“I don’t believe any human being would do that.”
Balls responded:
“You probably wouldn’t believe what happened in Germany in the 1930s.”
The blunt intervention appeared to suggest that behaviour once considered unthinkable can become possible when a group of people is repeatedly dehumanised.
A clip of the exchange spread rapidly online.
RNLI volunteers branded ‘traitors’
The discussion followed disturbing scenes in Portsmouth after RNLI volunteers were sent to assist a small boat carrying approximately 120 people near the Isle of Wight.
According to the government’s account of the incident, more than 200 protesters arrived at the harbour and attempted to block coaches due to take the passengers for immigration processing.
Many of the demonstrators were dressed in black and wearing face coverings.
Police used batons and PAVA spray after encountering aggression, while the coaches were prevented from leaving until the early hours of the morning. Officers and police vehicles were reportedly injured or damaged during the disorder.
RNLI volunteers subsequently faced abuse online, with photographs and names of individual crew members circulated on social media. Some users branded them “traitors” for rescuing people in distress.
Balls’s comparison came as Reid struggled to understand how opposition to immigration could extend to condemning people for preventing deaths at sea.
Balls’s warning divides viewers
The reference to 1930s Germany was inevitably provocative.
Supporters of Balls’s intervention argued that he was warning about the consequences of treating a group of human beings as undeserving of compassion or protection.
His remark did not suggest that contemporary Britain is identical to Nazi Germany. Rather, it challenged the assumption that ordinary people are incapable of accepting cruelty when prejudice and dehumanising language become normalised.
Others are likely to regard the historical comparison as excessive or inflammatory.
The exchange nevertheless captured a central question raised by the protests: whether political anger over immigration can ever justify obstructing emergency workers or attacking volunteers for saving people at risk of drowning.
RNLI rejects conspiracy theories
The RNLI has strongly defended its crews and rejected claims that the charity is assisting illegal immigration.
In a statement responding to the abuse, chief executive Peter Sparkes said volunteers and their families had been threatened by people hiding behind balaclavas and keyboards.
The charity said its lifeboats respond when tasked by HM Coastguard and rescue people without judging their nationality, background or immigration status.
Anyone rescued from a small boat is immediately handed to the appropriate immigration authorities.
The RNLI also rejected online rumours that it secretly houses asylum seekers or conducts missions to transport migrants to undisclosed locations, describing the allegations as completely baseless.
Figures released by the charity show that its lifeboats launched 9,058 times during 2025. Only 109 launches, or 1.2 per cent of the total, involved small boats in the Channel.
Nearly 95 per cent of people crossing the Channel in small boats that year were assisted by Border Force rather than the RNLI.
‘Anyone can drown’
The RNLI’s position is that its crews have a single responsibility when somebody is in danger at sea: to try to save their life.
International maritime rules require vessels to assist people in distress, while the overcrowded and unseaworthy boats used for Channel crossings can deteriorate rapidly.
The charity’s volunteers do not determine what happens to those they rescue after reaching land. Immigration decisions remain the responsibility of the government and its agencies.
The RNLI said:
“Illegal immigration is a political issue; the RNLI exists to save lives at sea.”
That distinction was at the heart of the Good Morning Britain exchange.
People can support stricter immigration policies while recognising that emergency crews must rescue anyone facing death. The controversy arises when opposition to migration becomes hostility towards the act of saving a human life.
Reid’s reaction reflected her belief that most people would ultimately help somebody in mortal danger, regardless of their politics.
Balls’s response offered a darker warning: history provides ample evidence that societies should never assume cruelty is impossible.
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