DAME Priti Patel has claimed that pressure on the government from the Conservatives has been key in forcing a U-turn over the handover of the Chagos Islands.
She told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “There were preliminary talks and discussions off the back of what was an arbitrary legal judgment. But of course that’s a world away from what has happened since.
“There’s now a treaty and a bill in Parliament, and it’s through the scrutiny of this bill, and by the way, we’re the ones, my party has forced every single line of question, 160 written parliamentary questions. I’ve forced opposition day debates on this with the government, because they’ve avoided all scrutiny.
“So your point about Mr weak Keir Starmer, and international human rights lawyer Lord Hermer, they have failed on all of this because they’ve just wanted to wave it through, focusing on the rights of the Mauritian government and giving them away money.
“It’s the treaty, the 1966 treaty, which I referred to in Parliament last Tuesday in the debate, which basically says that Chagos is British and the Americans have to be consulted on this. That basically lifted the lid off the Pandora’s box and exposed the government, not just on the 1966 treaty, but the fact that Mauritius now has two aspects of military operations on the base of Diego Garcia.”
She rejected a suggestion that Reform and Nigel Farage deserve credit for highlighting the issue: “I do not accept that proposition at all, because it is diplomacy behind the scenes involving my party as well, and conversations with Speaker Johnson.
“We’ve had conversations with Speaker Johnson about this too, and it’s not just him. I’ve had engagement with the State Department in America. We have conservatives in Washington that have been making the case to the White House. So I think it’s absolutely misleading, if I may say.
“This isn’t about who takes credit. My party believes in standing up for Britain and our national interests and our national security. We understand this. I’ve done it professionally as Home Secretary, and I understand the intelligence sharing of the way in which you work with the United States.
“This is not a flippant matter at all, deadly serious, and I don’t think this is about who takes credit. There’s a lot of painful work, a lot of forensic work that has taken place on this. Politicians don’t necessarily have to stand up and brag about it.”
She also criticised Robert Jenrick for claiming that she said that she was happy for immigration to go up: “I didn’t say I was happy with it, but let me just say something about this.
“First of all, I think people can see the content of his character by the way in which he just sort of blames everybody else for the past. He was also a Home Office minister and takes no responsibility. My party’s moved on from all of that. We really have.
“Your viewers are not interested in political egos and psychodramas in political parties. Look at the work of the Conservative Party in opposition. We force the government into 14 U-turns on major issues that the British public care about.
“We are not interested in psychodrama or vexatious comments and people with their own agendas. That doesn’t help to put money in people’s pockets.”