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PRITI AWKWARD
Watch Priti Patel as she’s confronted with proof migration soared while SHE was Home Secretary – sparking Kemi slapdown
Watch Never Mind The Ballots in the video player above
TORIES were in turmoil tonight after Dame Priti Patel defended their record of eye-watering immigration.
Kemi Badenoch brutally slapped down her Shadow Foreign Secretary for championing the party’s handling of the issue - which saw arrivals spike to historic levels.
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Appearing on The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots show, Dame Priti tried to claim that Brexit had allowed Britain to cherry-pick the “best and brightest” from abroad.
And the ex-Home Secretary mounted a bizarre defence when challenged over the 1.2million who came last year - adding 728,000 to the population when departures are factored.
She said: “We should first of all recognize that we ended free movement…It’s legal migration, it’s legal. People who come here and work and contribute to our economy, the brightest and the best.
“Look at the points based immigration system for the first time ever we have a points based immigration system.
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“Counting people in and out. You can turn off the immigration system at any stage in terms of what our economy needs and doesn't need.”
Dame Priti - who was Home Secretary under Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2022 - claimed that much of the influx were humanitarian visas issued Ukrainians and Hong Kongers.
In the year ending 2022, a total 188,000 visas were issued for humanitarian reasons, a fraction of the 1.07million migrants who arrived in Britain.
The majority of migrants are those coming on work or study visas, as well as their family.
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Host Harry Cole asked if Dame Priti - who played a leading role in the 2016 referendum - wanted to apologise for vowing to tame immigration only to “throw open the borders”.
But she hit back: “To be quite frank, we made it quite clear it would be people from the rest of the world, people with skills based on our economy.”
Her remarks were wildly out of step with Ms Badenoch, who has said sorry for the sky-high numbers on the Conservatives’ watch.
Scrambling to defuse the row, the Tory leader’s spokesman said: “As Kemi said when she committed to a hard cap on visas in November, under her leadership the Conservative Party will tell the truth about the mistakes we made.
While the last Conservative government may have tried to control numbers, we did not deliver.”
Dame Priti herself put out a clarification statement, saying “it is important we learn from our mistakes” and admitting numbers have been too high.
But political rivals last night seized on her comments, with Nigel Farage blasting: “The Conservative Party are proud of their disastrous record on immigration — and would do it again.”
A Labour spokesman added: “The Conservatives are totally out of touch with reality. Priti Patel has refused to apologise for record high net migration under the Tories.
“Instead, she seems proud of her central role in the Tory open border experiment.”
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