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Priti Patel made it clear that she would consider reviving Rwanda-style deportations for asylum seekers to third party countries if she were to become prime minister as she officially launched her bid to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.
The former home secretary was the original architect of the highly controversial Rwanda scheme which cost the taxpayer £700 million and saw no asylum seekers flown to the east African state before Labour cancelled the plan after they were elected in July.
But answering questions at her launch, Dame Priti defended her record and said that a future government led by her would need to consider a similar scheme - although she avoided mentioning the word “Rwanda”.
Asked how she would stop the boats, Dame Priti said: “It’s pretty obvious that the Labour government simply does not have a plan. One of the most damaging things they have done is effectively tear up the operational delivery plans that I put in place.
“What would I do? I would absolutely implement the National Borders Act, I would bring forward the new plan for immigration. We would have that differentiation between asylum and accommodation with detention and reception centres. We would have strong laws and strong deterrents in place and we should be looking at a third country.”
She described Labour’s cancellation of the Rwanda scheme as “sad”.
Dame Priti made her pitch to be Conservative leader with Reform UK’s former London Mayor candidate Howard Cox in the audience after she invited him to her event.
Mr Cox is still a leading member of Reform and most recently was the candidate for Nigel Farage’s party in the general election in Dover.
But Dame Priti and her campaign manager Jonathan Gullis have worked with Mr Cox for many years on his Fair Fuel UK campaign to keep petrol duty frozen. And while she also avoided mention of the words “Reform” and “Farage”, Dame Priti’s pitch to the right was clearly aimed at bringing disaffected Tories back.
Mr Cox told The Independent: “Priti Patel has supported my Fair Fuel Campaign for over a decade and she has been instrumental in keeping fuel duty frozen since 2011. I am flattered to be invited to her launch event today because I think she is the only Thatcherite left in the Tory party.”
However, Dame Priti, who publicly wooed Nigel Farage at the Tory conference last year, insisted Reform was “just one factor” in the defeat on 4 July and referred to them as “the non-Conservative blue party” that only emerges during elections.
The Witham MP was also bullish about her party’s chances at the next election. When asked if they can come back from their record, humiliating defeat in July and win, she said: “You bet we can!”
She also made a point of defending her record as home secretary, refusing to apologise for record immigration numbers and insisting she put the system in process to bring numbers down.
In a speech aimed more at party members than her fellow MPs, who will decide who the final two who will be voted on by the party, Dame Priti said: “We are a patriotic party, a national party who believes in the union and the matters which concern hard-working people every single day.
“And I will lead us from opposition to government, so that we can serve the British people again and give them back the freedoms and the dignity that Labour will take away from them.”
She called prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s No 10 speech earlier this week “one of the most feeble, pitiful and dishonest speeches you will ever hear”.
She accused the Labour prime minister of “a nasty assault” against pensioners by cancelling the winter fuel allowance but noticeably did not full commit to restoring it.
She also lashed out against plans for a four-day week, saying: “In terms of the four-day week, this absolutely sums up this Labour government, it really does, at every single level.
“Imposing more burdens and bureaucracy and red tape, regulation, onto businesses, the very people that employ people.”
She added: “This will have devastating impacts for those businesses but importantly for our economy. Labour claims to talk about growth. It is obvious that they do not have a growth plan.”
In an appeal for support from Conservative colleagues in Parliament, she said her “professionalism” would restore the party’s ability to take on challenges from other parties during campaigning.
She said: “I am absolutely determined to ensure that we become that election-winning machine all over again, regardless of who our political opponents are across the political spectrum, whether it’s Reform, the Lib Dems, the Greens, because it varies across the country,” she said.
Dame Priti pledged to introduce an elected party chairperson as part of giving back “control” to members if she is picked as party leader.
She also said she would reform the parliamentary candidate selection process which she said led to candidates being “imposed upon local associations, parachuted down because they were the chosen favourite”.
Dame Priti said that she has heard the message from the British public “loud and clear” after the disastrous electoral result for the Tories, but also said that “Conservatism has not failed.”
“Our values and our principles remain as true as ever, and they are still shared by the majority of the public.”
Dame Priti is one of six candidates for the Conservative leadership. She faces competition from Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Kemi Badenoch.
A new leader will be announced at the start of November, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget, due in October.
