The Home Secretary has told MPs she is committed to "stopping the invasion" of Kent's coast amid heightened concerns over the asylum seeker crisis.

Critics have condemned Suella Braverman's "incredibly dangerous rhetoric", while others have lauded her defiant stance.

Immigration processing centres at Manston and Dover are severely overcrowded, with outbreaks of MRSA and diphtheria being reported.

Ms Braverman says the sheer numbers of people arriving via the Channel makes it impossible to provide accommodation for them.

She stresses that she has "worked hard to find accommodation to relieve pressure at Manston", and insists she has never blocked the use of hotels.

Speaking in the Commons this evening, the recently-reinstated Home Secretary said: “Let’s be clear about what is really going on here - the British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not.

“Some 40,000 people have arrived on the south coast this year alone. Many of them facilitated by criminal gangs, some of them are actual members of criminal gangs.

“So let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows that is not true.

“We need to be straight with the public. The system is broken.

“Illegal migration is out of control and too many people are interested in playing political parlour games, covering up the truth than solving the problem.

“I know that I speak for the decent, law-abiding, patriotic majority of British people from every background that wants safe and secure borders.”

Almost 1,000 people arrived on Kent shores on Saturday as they made the journey across the world's busiest shipping lane in small boats.

About 700 people were moved to Manston from Dover yesterday following the petrol bomb attack which resulted in the 66-year-old suspect killing himself.

Critics have been quick to condemn the Home Secretary's speech, with Labour's Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana tweeting: "Disgusted to hear Suella Braverman say there's an 'invasion on our southern coast', just a day after a migrant detention centre was fire-bombed.

"Language like this – portraying migrants as 'invaders' – whips-up hate & spreads division."

In the Commons tonight, North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale commented on the conditions at Manston, where 4,000 are thought to currently be held.

“That facility operated absolutely magnificently and very efficiently indeed until five weeks ago, when I'm afraid the home secretary took the policy decision not to commission further accommodation and it is that, that has led to the crisis at Manston,” he said.

Addressing the Home Secretary, he asked: “Will now give the House an assurance first that the adequate accommodation will be provided to enable the Manston facility to return to its previous work?

Ms Braverman replied: “I just must gently correct him. On no occasion have I blocked the procurement of hotels or alternative accommodation to ease the pressure on Manston, I'm afraid that simply isn't true.”

Following a visit to the Thanet processing centre yesterday, campaign group SOAS Detainee Support (SDS) shared a video online in which youngsters can be heard calling: "We need your help."

In the Twitter post, the activists added: “Dozens of young children are being held at Manston detention camp in Kent.

“We went today and heard them chanting for their freedom.

“Mothers, fathers, children and babies from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.

“This is persecution. Free them and close it down.”