Nigel Huddleston, who has been a Conservative MP for ten years, last night appeared on BBC One’s Question Time, during which he faced a jibe by presenter Fiona Bruce
The audience on BBC Question Time erupted in laughter as Fiona Bruce shot down a Tory MP during a discussion about immigration.
Nigel Huddleston’s claims the Labour Party had failed to build on the Conservative government’s work on immigration were slammed by the presenter of the programme. Ms Bruce pointed out the Tories “didn’t actually get anyone to Rwanda,” in a nod to the long-running policy which cost the British taxpayer £700million and was hit by multiple snags.
The audience in Aldershot, Hampshire, applauded and laughed as Ms Bruce interrupted Mr Huddleston to state: “Just one minute, just one minute… Nigel, even when you were in government, you didn’t actually get anyone to Rwanda. I think it’s worth pointing that out.”
Mr Huddleston, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, tried to continue his bluster but Ms Bruce allowed other panelists to chip in, including author and broadcaster Sonia Sodha. She also took aim at Mr Huddleston, blaming the state of immigration on his party after their long tenure.
Keir Starmer outlined the country’s immigration stance this week, a delivery which has divided opinion. Speaking at a major press conference in Albania on Thursday, he said the UK is in talks to send failed asylum seekers to “return hubs” in other countries.
It led to the exchange on Question Time, which Ms Bruce had to end as tensions became heated. Mr Huddleston, MP for Droitwich and Evesham, had said: “The reality is that Labour had virtually no plans for anything. They spent 14 years in opposition and came into power and didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do, whether it was on immigration, or the economy or a whole host of other things.
“I think it a bit reach for Peter (Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, also on the panel) to talk about empathy for care homes and everything else… In terms of what has changed over the last few weeks, I think what has changed for the Labour Party is quite simple – they lost the Runcorn by-election. That’s the reason for the change in policy.
“They failed to support all (our) measures… The first thing they did when they came into government was scrap the disincentive, scrap any deterrent (for migrants).”
It was at this point when Ms Bruce, presenter of the show since 2019, raised her hands – and voice – to silence the politician and remind him of the failed Rwanda scheme, which Mr Starmer quickly axed after taking power last year.
It is thought some £700million of taxpayers’ money went into the Tories’ plan, including £290million in payments to Rwanda, as well as the costs of chartering flights that never left the ground. It also cost the taxpayer to detain hundreds of people and then release them, and to pay for more than 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme.