Watch: Priti Patel challenged to apologise over borders failure

As Reform UK’s support surges, the Conservatives are coming under scrutiny for failing to deal with immigration to the UK during their time in power. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel found herself in the firing line after she was grilled on the Sun’s Never Mind the Ballots today.

Quizzed by the newspaper’s political editor Harry Cole, Patel was first shown a graph of Britain’s immigration levels before being told: ‘You ended free movement for Europeans and you threw the borders open for the rest of the world!’ Ouch.

An indignant Patel insisted ‘legal migration’ was behind the spike, and claimed ‘the brightest and the best’ had been let into Britain under the Tories. Er, right. ‘I’m not fine with [the graph],’ the ex-Home Secretary eventually admitted. ‘Would you like to apologise to all the people who voted Brexit for the fact you misled them?’ Cole pressed her. That was apparently a step too far – although after a slap down from her party leader Kemi Badenoch, Patel later clarified