Where is Priti Patel? Home Secretary facing questions over what she’s doing

Patel has come up against mounting accusations that she is avoiding scrutiny as the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold.

Priti Patel has been accused of avoiding scrutiny as she remains notably absent during the coronavirus crisis.

The Home Secretary has repeatedly refused to appear before a select committee to discuss the pandemic, and has not been involved in any of the government’s daily press conferences. The hashtag ‘where is Priti Patel’ has been trending on Twitter for the past two days.

In a letter to Patel dated April 8, chair of the home affairs committee, Yvette Cooper, stated that they had been asking her to come and give evidence ‘for very many weeks in continued correspondence’.

She wrote that there were ‘urgent issues’ to be discussed and noted that other briefings could not be considered an alternative to ‘having the Home Secretary provide public information and answers to public questions at this crucial time’.

The committee pointed out that that the Justice Secretary, Work and Pensions Secretary, Transport Secretary and Health Secretary had all given evidence to their committees or planned a date that they would do so.

Cooper said Patel had ignored four previous requests to give evidence to the committee on January 29, March 6, March 20 and March 27.

For all the latest news and updates on Coronavirus, click here. For our Coronavirus live blog click here.

In a reply, Patel declined an invitation to give evidence remotely on April 15 and said she would appear before MPs at the end of the month. She did not set a date for the meeting.

She went on to say she was ‘disappointed’ with the ‘increasingly adversarial tone’ of her exchanges with Cooper. She continued: ‘I am very sorry that you have declined my offer of regular briefings with officials and ministers at the Home Office.’

She also added that she was ‘conscious of the need to give Home Office members of staff the time and space they need to carry out their essential duty of keeping the British public safe during this national crisis’.

At the start of March, Patel had been urged to respond to bullying claims after the Home Office’s most senior civil servant quit. Sir Philip Rutnam claimed Patel had ‘created fear’ at the Home Office by ‘shouting, swearing and belittling people’. She denies the allegations.

Joe Exotic's TV producer recalls moment he 'broke peacock's neck and fed it to tiger'

Today Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden insisted that the Home Secretary is engaged with the ongoing coronavirus crisis ‘in an hour-by-hour and day-by-day basis’.

He told Sky News: ‘She’s 100% engaged. She’s in the Home Office pretty much every day, as far as I know, that’s where I’ve seen her every day. I really don’t think there’s an issue with respect to the Home Secretary.’

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The Home Secretary has accepted the invitation to appear in front of the home affairs select committee before the end of April.

‘As expected, she is currently leading the Home Office response during this national crisis, working tirelessly to keep the British public safe.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.