THE government has been accused of being “shambolic” by Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel following reports that it is to water down plans for digital IDs following a public outcry.
She told GB News: “It just shows what a shambolic government we have. This is U-turn number 13, and it shows that we got a government that’s full of gimmicks and just not serious about coming up with credible policies.
“We campaigned against this whole digital ID, alongside many of the other areas that Labour have U-turned on, whether it’s a family farms tax, their constant bludgeoning off the UK economy with high taxes, grooming gangs, you name it.
“They’ve been forced into yet another U-turn, and it just shows that they know this was never a serious policy.
“When it was announced, Keir Starmer said that it’s going to stop the small boats, and it was all about illegal migration. Well, the only way you stop illegal migration is by having a strong deterrent and making sure these people don’t come to our country in the first place.
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“This just shows what a shambolic government we’ve got. They’re not serious or credible, and that Keir Starmer is just so weak, so feeble, and we just don’t have credible people in this government at all, and their policies are just damaging the British interest.”
On Iran, she said: “There are a number of things. To be very frank, I was just disappointed with the words of the Foreign Secretary in Parliament yesterday, just words. She basically said she’s looking at potential legislation and more sanctions, no details.
“People have been murdered over the last two weeks. We have executions taking place, and it’s taken the British government two weeks to respond, which I think is an absolutely outrageous thing.
“It’s appalling, particularly because Iran is a hostile state. They sent their assassination squads to our country. They cause all sorts of problems through their proxies in the United Kingdom, but you’ve asked the question about the IRGC. I’ve always believed, we’ve always said that that should be under review.
“We have a Labour government that said that they would proscribe them when they’re in opposition. And I have asked the Foreign Secretary, very clearly, what is stopping them from doing that? What new evidence and information is there about proscription that might be holding them back?
“We’ll be challenging them on this, and that’s the right thing to do. I’ll be pressing the case for this, because I want to see the information and the security detail as to why this government is holding back Iran is a threat to our country, and we would support the government on taking all the right action when it comes to Iran, including keeping our country safe and making sure that our national security is safe against the IRGC so we are pushing on this point with them.”
On the government’s announcement on a new Birmingham to Manchester rail line: “My understanding early of this is that it’s another dilution and a re-announcement of what was part of the Northern Powerhouse plan. So you know, all we ever get when it comes to rail, I don’t know what it is with this government, but they seem to sort of attribute themselves or hide behind rail announcements and things of that nature, where they’re just re-announcing or diluting proposals that they’ve been speaking about in government.
“I think the British public want action. They just don’t want to hear about another timetable around another train announcement, and they want to see some action here. So we’ll look at the detail. But quite frankly, my understanding of this is a dilution of previous plans.
“We don’t know the details of when this will come into plan, what the costs are. This is really one that has to be scrutinised, and let’s just see if we end up with yet another U-turn on this or another re-announcement on this in the months and weeks ahead.”
