Rishi Sunak is “quick to anger” and a man whose smile is “not always genuine”, according to former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries.
Ms Dorries was a stalwart ally of Boris Johnson, and has continuously criticised Mr Sunak since he took over as leader of the party and government last year.
She claims he – among many things – blocked her ascension to the House of Lords. This has been denied by Downing Street.
Speaking to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge, Ms Dorries was asked why she had described Mr Sunak as “sickly nice” in her new book, The Plot.
Explaining what she meant, Ms Dorries said: “If you saw him in his interview with Elon Musk I think you know what I mean.
“There’s a smile [that] is not always genuine – and I’m sure you’ve read many times yourself and heard many times yourself – but he was, he’s quick to anger, and because that mask often slips.”
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Ms Dorries said she had seen this happening.
Asked when this occurred, she said it was “just an irritability” – adding that it was “very hard to put on an image, isn’t it, all day”.
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“It’s very hard to keep that fixed grin and that, you know, that cheerful chappy demeanour all day long when you’re prime minister,” she said.
“It’s like 24 hours a day, so I’m not surprised the mask slips because it’s quite hard to keep up that effort.
“I think that’s part of the problem.”
Asked about the recent reshuffle, Ms Dorries said she did not think it was right to sack Suella Braverman.
She accused Downing Street of lying about not signing off a controversial article authored by the former home secretary in which she accused the police of “playing favourites” with pro-Palestine protesters.
When Ms Dorries was a minister and Mr Johnson was in power, Downing Street came under scrutiny for its statements on partygate and Chris Pincher – the latter event precipitating the collapse of the administration.
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On Lord David Cameron‘s appointment as foreign secretary, Ms Dorries claimed the job was “created” so Lord Cameron could be put in the House of Lords – something she thinks would not have happened otherwise due to the Greensill lobbying scandal.
Sky News has contacted Number 10 and Lord Cameron for comment on Ms Dorries’s claims.
Watch the interview tonight at 7pm on the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge
A Reform UK canvasser who used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak has called himself a “total fool” and said he has learned his lesson.
Footage from an undercover Channel 4 reporter showed Reform campaigner Andrew Parker using a discriminatory term about the prime minister, as well as saying the army should “just shoot” migrants crossing the Channel.
Mr Parker, who was canvassing in Clacton, where Reform leader Nigel Farage is standing, told Sky News the sting operation had “proper taught me a lesson”.
He said: “There’s lots of old people like me who are sick to death of this woke agenda… but on that particular day, I was set up and set up good and proper.
“It’s proper taught me a lesson – I was a total fool.”
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Pressed on his use of the racial slur, he said he was an “old man” and “I still use old words”.
“There’s no racism at all in it. I am a decent guy to be honest”, he added.
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In the Channel 4 report, Mr Parker can be heard using offensive language about the prime minister and also discussing migrants arriving in small boats in Deal, Kent
He said: “Army recruitment – get the young recruits there, with guns, on the f****** beach, target practice. F****** just shoot them.”
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He also described Islam as a “disgusting cult”.
Mr Farage said he was “dismayed” by the “appalling” comments and has sought to distance himself from the campaigner, saying he was simply “someone who turned up to help” and “has nothing to do with the party”.
He has also used reports Mr Parker was a part-time actor to suggest the incriminating film was a “total set-up” – something Channel 4 has strongly denied.
Mr Parker himself says his volunteering for Reform was separate from his acting job – and claims he was “goaded” into making the comments.
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: “We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism which speaks for itself.
“We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser.
“We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.”
The broadcaster’s investigation also caught another canvasser describing the Pride flag as “degenerate” and suggesting members of the LGBT community are paedophiles.
A spokesman for Essex Police said the force is “urgently assessing” the comments “to establish if there are any criminal offences”.
PM ‘hurt and angry’ over racial slur
Mr Sunak reacted furiously to the comments and said Mr Farage had “some questions to answer”.
He said: “My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing P***. It hurts and it makes me angry and I think he has some questions to answer.
“And I don’t repeat those words lightly. I do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.
“As prime minister, but more importantly as a father of two young girls, it’s my duty to call out this corrosive and divisive behaviour.”
Unrepentant Farage doubles down
However, Mr Farage was unrepentant when grilled on the row during a BBC Question Time leaders’ special, saying he was “not going to apologise” for the actions of people associated with his party.
Reform UK has faced a series of controversies relating to election candidates saying offensive or racist things.
Asked why his party “attracts racists and extremists”, the former UKIP leader claimed he had “done more to drive the far right out of British politics than anybody else alive” – claiming he took on the British Nationalist Party (BNP) a decade ago.
He also appeared to throw his predecessor Richard Tice under the bus when read racist and xenophobic comments made by Reform candidates, saying he “inherited a start up party” and has “no idea” why the people who said those things had been selected.
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