British Far-Right commentator Katie Hopkins now faces immediate deportation from Australia, after her travel visa was revoked by Border Force.
The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews MP confirmed Hopkins would be deported “imminently” in an interview with Michael Rowland on ABC News Breakfast.
The Minister told viewers she was “very pleased she’ll be leaving,” and that the deportation would occur, “As soon as we can be possibly arrange it”
While Andrews was happy to describe Hopkins behaviour as “appalling”, the federal minister was unwilling to accept any blame for the decision to grant her a travel visa in the first place.
Instead the minister attempted to put the blame on the NSW State Government stating Hopkins had arrived “with the support of a state government,” and that “She came in here on the basis of potential benefit to the economy.”
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the Dept of Home Affairs has declined to confirm or deny if Hopkins will be required to complete her current two week stint in a Sydney Hotel Quarantine Hotel prior to be deported from the country.
The decision to deport Hopkins comes after Channel 7 and production company Endemol Shine Australia moved to distance themselves from the polarising figure as controversy at her appointment ramped up.
In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, the network stated:
“The Seven Network and Endemol Shine Australia confirm that Katie Hopkins is not a part of Big Brother VIP. Seven and Endemol Shine strongly condemn her irresponsible and reckless comments in hotel quarantine.”
The network was forced to dump Hopkins from the cast of the reality series after she made comments suggesting quarantine and lockdown procedures for COVID-19 were unnecessary.
Arriving in Australia only a few days ago she posted on her Instagram that she was breaching the hotel quarantine protocols as often as possible because she thought them to be irrelevant.
On Saturday morning, Hopkins posted a social media video where she indicated she had been putting staff at risk by:
“lying in wait” in the bathroom naked, sprinting to the door to “frighten the s . . t out of them, and do it naked with no face mask”.
Her arrival sparked an online firestorm as many were upset Hopkins appeared to jump the arrivals queue ahead of ‘many other more deserving’ Australians stuck overseas.
Only last week Seven CEO James Warburton was forced to apologise for a poorly-worded headline on an article published on 7news.com.au that drew claims of racism. In response he sent an email to all staff including this statement:
“The post was inexcusable, embarrassing and clearly does not meet the expectations of our company and the values that we’ve all worked so hard on over the past 12 months.”
Additional reporting – Steve Molk
