“I don’t think you’ve named this person, Sir Keir’s mate, who’s trying to thwart all your cunning plans"
Immigration minister Robert Jenrick endured a humiliating interview on LBC this morning, after his claims about the Labour Party were fact checked.
Jenrick clashed with presenter Andrew Castle, after he repeatedly refused to name a lawyer he claimed is working with the Labour Party to stop migrants being deported.
Jenrick was grilled on his claim after writing an Op-Ed in the Sun, where he claimed that ‘a top lawyer who advised Labour on anti-racism policies is at the forefront of efforts to stop people being deported to Rwanda’.
I suppose Tory ministers think that they can just make any claim that they want without being asked to prove them.
LBC presenter Castle asked him: “Who is this person? Who is Sir Keir Starmer’s friend?”
Jenrick replied: “Well they’ve sat on a number of boards that are linked …”
Castle once more tried to get an answer out of Jenrick. He said: “I don’t know, Robert, what the name of this person is so we could look up the story. I wonder if you could tell us the name of this person so that we can have a good look at it?”
In a bizarre twist, Jenrick responded: “Well you can read, if you like, my op-ed in today’s Sun that talks about Sir Keir’s adviser, who sat on a number of panels with him.”
Castle went through a copy of the paper on-air and said: “Sir Keir Starmer, you say in your op-ed in The Sun today page 14 ’faces serious questions about his links with charities and lawyers who’ve campaigned to thwart our work to stop the boats. Today we learn that a top lawyer has advised Labour on anti-racism policies is at the forefront of efforts to stop people being deported to Rwanda’.
″Where is the name here?”
Jenrick continued to insist that the name was in the article, before Castle later added: “I don’t think you’ve named this person, Sir Keir’s mate, who’s trying to thwart all your cunning plans to stop people getting the boats and coming over here.
″I don’t think you’ve named the person in this article. Either that or some sub has taken it out. So I’ll ask you again, can you just name the person that you claim in your article is stopping people being deported to Rwanda who is a mate of Sir Keir Starmer. Can you just give me the name?”
Jenrick continued to insist: “Well it is actually named in the article.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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