Outraged TalkTV star puts head in hands as 'balloon artists' hired to entertain migrants

Outraged TalkTV presenter Alex Phillips was left covering her face with her hands as political commentator Thomas Godfrey confessed the Home Office has been advertising jobs for teachers to show balloon crafts to illegal migrants awaiting deportation. The job advertisement was for a "hospitality and floristry tutor", who would run hands-on workshops for arts and crafts in immigration removal centres.

Boasting salaries of £31,585, the jobs were to take place at Harmondsworth and Colnbrook at Heathrow. A spokesperson for facilities management company Mitie said the jobs were "part of their contractual obligations" and intended to support the "physical and mental wellbeing of detained individuals".

But Godfrey was clearly disgusted during the segment, explaining: "It's worth laying it out. Taxpayer funds from the Home Office contract are being used to hire people who can teach balloon craft in immigration removal centres."

An outraged Alex Phillips asked: "Removal centres?" as he went on: "Yeah, the key word is removal centres. A lot of these people are either awaiting deportation or having their immigration status resolved. They are, in effect many of them, on their way out of the country. Their asylum claims have been rejected or they're a foreign national offender who's waiting to be flown home-"

He was cut off by Phillips, who said: "You just gave me a statistic then, before we came back, about the proportion of these people who are actually coming from prison."

Godfrey said: "Well it's two thirds at Harmondsworth, which is one of the two sites at Heathrow, two thirds of arrivals last year, a report found, had come directly from prison. They were foreign offenders who were deported at the end of their term, they arrived from prison and seemingly are going to be given lessons on floristry, painting, decorating, hairdressing and have someone running around doing gym classes for them.

"It's worth noting the Home Office has asked for these jobs to be taken down, they've said they were not necessary in the first place but that is the question - why were these jobs allowed to be offered? Why were they fielding applicants?"