'You were accused of describing the Rwanda system as batshit'

  • last year
'You were accused of describing the Rwanda system as batshit'Home Secretary James Cleverly is questioned on BBCBreakfast about a claim made by Labour in the House of Commons
Transcript
00:00 Yesterday in the Commons, you were accused of describing the Rwanda system as "batshit".
00:07 Is that true?
00:08 Did you say those words?
00:09 Well, look, I'm not...
00:11 That was a claim made of me, not something that I said.
00:16 But the point is...
00:17 You didn't say that.
00:18 Is that...
00:19 You didn't say that.
00:20 But the point is...
00:21 But the point is...
00:22 Look, it's good for parliamentary...
00:23 It's good for parliamentary theatre.
00:25 The point that I said is...
00:27 And I repeat it.
00:28 The Rwanda scheme is already having a deterrent effect.
00:32 When we operationalise it, when we get those flights taking off, it will have an even greater
00:36 deterrent effect.
00:38 And it will be part of the toolkit that is seeing the applications sped up, the returns
00:46 increased, the number of raids on illegal employments, people employing illegal migrants
00:52 significantly increased, up 70%.
00:56 This is a...
00:57 As I say, this is an important part, a very important part of a range of activities cracking
01:04 down on illegal migration.
01:07 And it is working.
01:08 Very happy to give you the time to answer the question I just asked you, is did you
01:12 say that word?
01:14 So I don't remember.
01:15 I certainly don't remember saying anything like that.
01:20 And the point is, the point is, this is a really important part of our plan which is
01:27 already working.

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