Ben & Jerry’s U.K. has been told by anti-woke campaigners to “stick to selling ice cream” after calling on the U.K.’s new Home Secretary Suella Braverman to scrap government plans to deport illegal immigrants to processing centers in Rwanda.
Shortly after being appointed to her new role at the Home Office on Tuesday evening, Ben & Jerry’s posted a “congratulatory” tweet with a mock up Home Office to-do list for the following day.
On the list were tasks such as scrapping the Rwanda plan, granting illegal immigrants the right to work during pending asylum applications, introducing safe routes to the U.K. for asylum seekers, and scheduling meetings with people who have “lived experience of the U.K.’s asylum system.”
The tweet went viral on social media and prompted much criticism from anti-woke campaigners who replied with their own suggestions of tasks for the ice cream brand, calling on them to “stick to selling ice cream,” and to “stop trying to distract from the fact that you’re owned by a massive multinational called Unilever that exploits poor countries.”
Conservative MP Sir John Hayes also dismissed the ice cream brand’s intervention, telling the Telegraph: “If you want to buy some ice cream you go to an ice cream company, if you want public policy you don’t.”
It isn’t the first time the global ice cream company has involved itself in political affairs. In April 2021, Ben & Jerry’s called for the police to be de-funded and the U.S. criminal justice system “dismantled” following the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright by a police officer in Minneapolis. Furthermore, in July of last year, Ben & Jerry’s angered the Israeli government by announcing it will stop selling its products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, describing them as “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
The new Home Secretary Suella Braverman did not dignify the perceived virtue-signalling post with a response. After meeting Home Office officials during her first day on the job on Wednesday, it is understood that she remains set on implementing the Rwanda deportation plan first proposed by her predecessor, Priti Patel, and former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Braverman has said her priorities are clear and simple, with the first task being to “fix the crisis in the [English] Channel.”
As a former attorney-general who worked as an esteemed barrister before her political career, Braverman is understood to have the legal expertise required to review current human rights legislation being exploited by pro-mass migration campaigners and overzealous human rights lawyers to keep those who arrive illegally in the U.K. on British soil.
A vocal critic of the European Convention on Human Rights, Braverman will review Britain’s role as a signatory to the legislation.
