Refugee charity rejects Tory vice-chair’s claim they are ‘just as bad as people-smugglers’

A volunteer organisation has dismissed a claim by the new Conservative deputy chair that Calais refugee charities are “just as bad as people-smugglers”.

Lee Anderson, who was given the role by Rishi Sunak during the prime minister’s recent reshuffle, accused refugee organisations based in northern France of “fuelling” people’s desire to cross the English Channel in small boats.

Anderson said that on a recent trip to Calais with the…