“As Minister of the Interior, I have a special responsibility at this crucial moment in our national history and when it comes to regaining control [le fameux slogan des brexiteurs]. We are going to end the free movement of people once and for all! “ This 1er October 2019, at the British Conservative Party’s annual high mass, Priti Patel takes a break. From the rostrum, she savored the applause in front of an audience of Tory activists committed to her cause. The opponents of the very right-handed British Home Secretary are not about to forget the carnivorous and triumphant smile she wore that day.
Centerpiece of the Johnson government, Priti Patel, 49, a die-hard brexitist who regularly flirts with far-right theses, is the pet peeve of those nostalgic for the European Union, the left and Britain’s Liberal Democrats in general. The member for Witham (in the south of England) did not speak out at the start of her political career, in the 2010s, in favor of the death penalty as “Deterrent tool” ?
Used to polemics
Thin face but your biting tone, this accustomed to polemics has not hesitated, in recent months, to attack “Activist lawyers” defending the rights of migrants, to action “Absolutely shameful” Black Lives Matter protesters who, in June 2020, tossed the statue of slave owner Edward Colston into Bristol harbor, at the “Ecology crusaders” of the Extinction Rebellion movement “Who fired criminals” and even the footballers of the England team kneeling down against xenophobia – “Political posturing”, estimated the minister.
Priti Patel is also the one who implemented the settled status for European citizens residing in the United Kingdom, refusing to extend beyond the 1er July is the deadline for claiming this right of long stay. The minister has finally just unleashed a new wave of indignation with the Nationality and Borders Bill, a bill made public Tuesday, July 6, criminalizing Channel crossings. Migrants who venture there without permission could face prison terms. Following the Danish model, the government is also considering exiling its asylum seekers in another foreign country. A policy denounced by associations of aid to migrants.
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