Rudd says PM’s Brexit approach is ‘absolutely right’
Speaking yesterday on the BBC’s new daily politics programme Politics Live Hastings MP Amber Rudd said the Prime Minister’s ‘Chequers Deal’ was the ‘best shot’ the country has at a successful Brexit.
She roundly condemned the former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s intervention in the debate yesterday as a ‘fervent short term approach’. She said that what Mr Johnson was suggesting was not a strategy nor a plan and summed it up as ‘leap before you look’.
Watch Amber Rudd on Politics Live
The Chequers deal is the right way to unite the country she says and any Brexit deal has to be about representing everyone, “this mustn’t be just about the 52 per cent (who voted in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 referendum) it must be about the 48 per cent.”
In an article in the Daily Telegraph yesterday Mr Johnson said the agreement reached at Chequers – the Prime Minister’s country retreat – in July would leave the UK with ‘two-thirds of diddly squat.”
Asked whether she thought Mr Johnston was launching a bid for leadership of the Conservative Party Ms Rudd said: “If he is, it is wrong, because this is an incredibly difficult time for parliament.”
Talking about her resignation as Home Secretary in April Ms Rudd told the programme’s host Jo Coburn: “I resigned over the fact that a number of people had been detained or deported over a period of ten, 15, 20 years who shouldn’t have been, and there was a justifiable outrage. Within that I got an element of an answer to a select committee wrong and the combination meant I felt it was right to resign.”
She also said she believed that whoever had been Home Secretary when the Windrush Scandal became public knowledge would have had to resign
She explained that before going she put in place a number of measures that should ensure something like the Windrush scandal can never happen again: “I thought that was the right thing to do,” she said.
“It’s wrong to pin this on one Prime Minister or one policy what happened was that it had taken place over a number of decades. I hope I have put in place sufficient safeguards before I left to ensure it never happens again” she said.
She said what had happened was ‘horrific’ and explained she had put in place a compensation scheme for those who had been affected by the Windrush scandal.
Asked if she would like to return to the cabinet she said, “I’m not without ambition,” but admitted she would have to wait to see what opportunities arose.
- What was agreed at Chequers that resulted in two cabinet ministers resigning their positions? Follow this link to a short summary
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44749993