Johnny Mercer rejects Fiona Bruce’s BBCQT claim over key Rishi Sunak failure
Question Time: Conservative Party ‘division’ discussed
Johnny Mercer rejected claims by Fiona Bruce that Rishi Sunak had “singularly failed” to bring the Tories together during tonight’s BBC QT.
The host highlighted how the Prime Minister is facing a crisis over his Rwanda plan with his party split over the issue.
But the veterans minister dismissed the claim as he defended the policy aimed at stopping small boats.
Ms Bruce said: “One thing that struck me listening to the Prime Minister today who made this emergency press conference of course following the resignation of the immigration minister yesterday is there’s open division in the Conservative Party over this issue.
“One thing Rishi Sunak promised to do when he became Prime Minister was unite the party and end the division and the chaos of the Liz Truss government and Boris Johnson’s administration. That he has singularly failed to do.”
The Cabinet minister replied: “I don’t agree with that because his is clearly an issue of debate in the Conservative Party and no one is running away from that at all.
“Obviously the immigration minister resigned yesterday because he wanted to go further, he wanted to withdraw from European human rights law completely.
“The Prime Minister is dealing with lots of other narratives in this space as well like Rwanda who say actually if you leave that this policy is going to fail and there’s no point even starting down this road.
“So it’s all a balance, we all want more things in politics. I’ve found that myself when I’ve been campaigning for veterans and veterans who have been prosecuted in Northern Ireland and things like that.
“I’ve always wanted more but the art of it actually is being able to come together, to unite around what is deliverable in the world as it is, not as we would want it to be, and actually delivering something for hardworking, ordinary men and women up and down this country who see the unfairness of illegal migration.”
The PM yesterday unveiled emergency legislation aimed at getting the Rwanda scheme up and running after the Supreme Court last month ruled it was unlawful.
But shortly after, Robert Jenrick resigned as immigration minister as he did not believe the Bill went far enough.
Tory MPs on the right of the party want the draft legislation to effectively override international law, but centrists from the One Nation caucus are strongly opposed.
A defiant Mr Sunak vowed to “finish the job” of getting the policy off the ground in a press conference earlier on Thursday.
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