What is the row between Patel and Badenoch about?

Two of the most rebarbative personalities to emerge from the Conservative Party in recent decades have been involved in an unseemly spat about immigration.

- SEAN O'GRADY

Priti Patel - appointed home secretary by Boris Johnson and in charge of immigration and the visa system from 2019 to 2022, and never shy of a scrap – took the opportunity of an interview with Harry Cole, political editor of The Sun, to defend her record on immigration, after some weeks of implied criticism from her now leader, Kemi Badenoch.

Badenoch, who admits she can be “direct” in debate, swiftly slapped Patel down; later, presumably on Badenoch’s orders, Patel – now the shadow foreign secretary – issued an uncharacteristically humble apology. Things were also enlivened by the current shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, accusing the British people (ie the ones the Tories would like to vote for them) of lacking a work ethic. Plus, it’s the fifth anniversary of that defining Tory achievement, Brexit...

What sparked the spat?

It need not have happened. Cole, as is his job, was lobbing accusations about the wave of post-Brexit immigration, echoing the criticisms Badenoch has made (albeit without naming the Tory leader); Patel, her usual proud and combative self, was giving as good as she got.