Watch: Priti Patel lashes out at Alastair Campbell

‘I don’t want a Home Secretary who can’t pronounce a G at the end of a word,’ said Alastair Campbell earlier this month after listening to Priti Patel. Today it was the Home Secretary’s turn to hit back at Tony Blair’s former spin doctor. In her speech at Tory conference, Patel had a message for Campbell, ‘lefty lawyers’ and her Twitter detractors:

For those defending the broken system: the traffickers, the do-gooders, the lefty lawyers, the Labour party – they are defending the indefensible. 

If at times that means being unpopular on Twitter, I will bear it. If at times it means Tony Blair’s spin doctor mocking my accent, so be it. And if at times it means Labour members of parliament attempting to silence me because I do not conform to what their idea of an ethnic minority woman should stand for, I will stomach it. 

Because as Conservatives, we do not measure the depth of our compassion in 280 characters on Twitter, but on the actions we take, and the choices we make.