Who is Priti Patel? Former home secretary hopes to secure Tory leadership

The competition to succeed Rishi Sunak as head of the Conservative Celebration has begun.

The six contenders hoping to take the management position embody Dame Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride, and Tom Tugendhat.

The candidates, which might be decreased to a shortlist of 4 via a sequence of hustings when parliament reconvenes from its summer time break on September 2, needed to have the assist of at the least 10 Tory MPs to ensure that a nomination to be included.

The final 4 candidates to current their case to occasion members on the Conservative convention this autumn might be chosen by Tory MPs on September 4.

Tory MPs will slim these 4 right down to the final two on October 10. Celebration members will then forged on-line ballots on October 31 to find out the winner, which might be revealed on November 2.

Patel resigned as home secretary in September 2022 and returned to the backbenches when Johnson was changed by the short-lived management of Liz Truss.

She is the Conservative MP for Witham and in September 2023 acquired a damehood for her political companies.

So who precisely is Priti Patel? Let’s get to know the previous house secretary.

Carl Courtroom / Getty Photographs

The London-born married mom of 1 studied economics at Keele College and accomplished postgraduate research on the College of Essex.

Having labored in consultancy and PR for a number of years, Priti then determined to step into the political area. She was first elected because the MP for Witham, Essex, in 2010 and has stored a grip on her seat in 4 consecutive elections since.

In 2006, Ms Patel stated she was in favour of the “final punishment” for the worst crimes in 2006 and, throughout a Query Time debate in 2011, supported the demise penalty – though she has since insisted her feedback had been taken out of context.

Between 2014 and 2017, Patel had a number of ministerial jobs, together with Secretary of State for Worldwide Improvement, Minister of State for Employment and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

She remained a backbencher till 2019, when she was appointed house secretary.

Priti Patel as house secretary

Boris Johnson supporter Dame Priti Patel is amongst those that had been criticised by the Privileges Committee

Yui Mok / PA

Priti Patel is seen by some as a hardline politician and, in some situations, controversial.

Mr Johnson himself described Ms Patel as a “hardline” house secretary, even joking that, beneath her, the UK might develop into the “Saudi Arabia of penal coverage”.

Throughout her tenure, Ms Patel was accused of bullying workers; grew to become embroiled in a confrontation with France over tackling the rising numbers of migrants crossing the English Channel; was dogged by criticism from campaigners over a wave of sweeping immigration and asylum reforms amid accusations her insurance policies had been “anti-refugee”; and fell out of favour with the police in a row over pay freezes.

However her supporters when she was house secretary praised her for taking what has been described as a good however agency and no-nonsense method on troublesome topics that immediate debate.

In April 2022 Ms Patel signed what she branded a “world-first” settlement to ship migrants deemed to have arrived within the UK illegally to Rwanda – a coverage that met sturdy opposition inside her occasion and past due to issues over the east African nation’s monitor file on human rights amongst different components.

The primary deportation flight was grounded by authorized challenges and the legality of the coverage was known as into query in a Excessive Courtroom battle.

Priti Patel’s bullying allegations

Mr Johnson famously vowed to “persist with Prit” after bullying allegations emerged and his then adviser on ministerial requirements, Sir Alex Allan, give up his submit when the Prime Minister overruled his conclusion that she had breached the Ministerial Code.

The fallout resulted in former Residence Workplace everlasting secretary Sir Philip Rutnam accepting a six-figure sum from the Authorities after launching authorized motion towards her following his dramatic resignation in 2020. On the time, he accused her of bullying subordinates and finishing up a “vicious and orchestrated” briefing marketing campaign towards him.

That very same 12 months, whereas there have been rising tensions between the Authorities and the authorized career, Ms Patel brought about a storm with an “ill-advised” tweet concerning the deaths of 39 migrants in Essex whereas a people-smuggling trial was beneath means. This prompted a decide to direct jurors to disregard feedback made by politicians on social media.

Dame Priti Patel led the Residence Workplace for 3 years throughout Boris Johnson’s premiership

PA Wire

Ministerial Code breaches

Mr Johnson stood by Ms Patel once more in 2021 over extra claims of Ministerial Code breaches following allegations she organized a gathering between a billionaire Tory donor and British Airways.

This got here as she was accused of “operating scared” after reportedly cancelling an in-person look at a police convention as high-ranking officers set out plans to withdraw from a pay overview system and take authorized motion over pensions.

Earlier in 2021 the Police Federation of England and Wales stated it now not had confidence in her as house secretary after a bitterly opposed pay freeze for officers was confirmed.

She has additionally clashed with others over racism. Patel hit again at a gaggle of black, Asian and minority ethnic Labour MPs who accused her of utilizing her Ugandan-Indian heritage to forged doubt on black communities’ expertise of racism, telling them she refused to “take lectures” on prejudice as she described being steadily racially abused.

Regardless of her condemnation of racism confronted by England footballers, she was additionally criticised for describing the motion of gamers taking the knee as “gesture politics”.

In a letter to Mr Johnson setting out her plan to resign after Liz Truss takes workplace as prime minister, Ms Patel stated it had been the “honour of my life” to function house secretary and that she would “proceed my public service to the nation and the Witham constituency from the backbenches” as soon as a successor is appointed.

Priti Patel

AFP by way of Getty Photographs

Priti Patel’s Covid response involvement

As house secretary in the course of the pandemic, Patel had an energetic position in how Covid-19 was managed within the UK.

She made a number of appearances in the course of the day by day pandemic press convention, addressing the nation about present Covid-19 updates. She reportedly additionally argued for stronger border restrictions however was overruled.

Talking about her stance on the Conservative Pals of India group in 2021, she stated: “On ‘ought to we have now closed our borders earlier’ the reply is sure, I used to be an advocate of closing them final March.”

In 2021, Labour claimed that Ms Patel was lobbying ministers to assist land a PPE face masks contract for a Tory donor.

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Who is Priti Patel? Former home secretary hopes to secure Tory leadership

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