Tag Archives: sophy ridge

Sophy Ridge Outsmarts Jonathan Gullis As Tory Botches Rwanda Scheme Blame Game

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New Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis has faced embarrassment after criticising peers and the Labour Party for voting against the flagship Rwanda deportation scheme – when he hasn’t been fully behind it himself.

Gullis abstained from voting on the Safety of Rwanda Bill at its second reading in December at a time when there was deep Conservative dissatisfaction with the legislation not going far enough.

The position came back to haunt the MP for Stoke-on-Trent when he was interviewed by Sophy Ridge on Sky News on Wednesday, a day after being handed the senior party role.

Gullis said: “Those pesky peers in the House of Lords, predominantly Labour, and Labour MPs and Sir Keir Starmer in the House of Commons are continuing to block any attempts that we make in order to get this Rwanda policy off the ground …”

Ridge quickly intervened: “But you abstained on the Rwanda vote, didn’t you?”

Knowing full well he did abstain, Gullis said that he “wanted to see the bill pass, so I didn’t block or deter it at any point”, adding: “I suggested amendments, Sophy.”

When Ridge clarified he “didn’t vote for it” and that he was just as “pesky” as those he was criticising, Gullis replied: “I haven’t voted like Labour have over 90 times to block the Rwanda scheme from being able to take place.”

You can watch the full exchange below.

The bill, which aims to overcome the Supreme Court’s block on the Rwanda deportation flights, is stuck in a game of parliamentary “ping-pong” as the House of Lords votes against the flagship legislation, only for MPs in the Commons to reverse those changes and send it back again.

It has undermined Rishi Sunak’s hopes of getting the deportation flights off the ground in the spring.

Britain and Rwanda signed a deal almost two years ago that would see migrants who cross the English Channel in small boats sent to the East African country, where they would remain permanently. So far, no migrant has been sent to Rwanda under the agreement.

The plan is key to Sunak’s pledge to “stop the boats” bringing unauthorised migrants to the UK. He argues that deporting asylum seekers will deter people from making risky journeys and break the business model of people-smuggling gangs. Just under 30,000 people arrived in Britain in small boats in 2023.

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‘Are You Comfortable With This?’ Minister Squirms Over Decision To Paint Over Children’s Mural

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A government minister has refused to back her Tory colleague’s decision to order the removal of a mural of Mickey and Minnie Mouse at an asylum detention centre.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick order the painting, and another one of Tom and Jerry, be painted over because they were too welcoming for children.

On Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News this morning, Treasury minister Victoria Atkins was repeatedly asked whether she was “comfortable” with the controversial move, but refused to do so.

Pointing to a picture of the centre, Ridge said: “If you have a look at it here – Minnie and Mickey Mouse here, Tom and Jerry there, and that was painted over, the decision taken by Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, because it was too welcoming.”

The murals at the Kent Intake Unit in Dover
The murals at the Kent Intake Unit in Dover

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons

Atkins insisted that children who arrive in the UK on small boats are “looked after properly”, but said the government wanted to stop them making the perilous journey in the first place.

But Ridge replied: “Just looking at this picture, I don’t believe you’re comfortable with the decision to paint over – I don’t believe it.”

The minister said: “I’m not comfortable with the idea that people would bring children across.”

The presenter hit back: “I can absolutely understand that, but that’s not the decision of the children. The decision to paint over this mural, it’s a place where kids go – they must be terrified when they go and sit on those chairs, they don’t know what’s happening and where they’re going to go.

“There was an active decision to paint over Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Are you happy with that?”

As she tried to dodge the question again, Ridge said: “Are you comfortable with this? You wouldn’t have done it, would you?”

Atkins replied: “When children come to the UK in those very frightening circumstances, we want them to be looked after well and looked after properly by local authorities.”

In a final attempt to get the minister to answer the question, Ridge said: “I think you can believe all of that and still be kind of uncomfortable about the idea that you’re part of a government that would paint over this mural.”

The minister responded: “What I care about is how those children are looked after when they come here and I’m confident that they’re given the care and the welfare that we would expect and we would want.”

The mural was installed at the Kent Intake Unit, which mainly processes children who arrive in the UK on their own unaccompanied by an adult.

The murals feature in an HM Chief Inspector of Prisons report published in February following an inspection of the facility after its opening in November.

After the i newspaper revealed the order to paint over them, Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock tweeted: “The idea that painting over murals for unaccompanied children in immigration centres will somehow stop the boats is utterly absurd. This is a sign of a chaotic government in crisis.”

The Lib Dems tweeted: “This is the worst kind of trivial nastiness – a Mickey Mouse minister taking an axe to Mickey Mouse.”

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Sophy Ridge Leaves Steve Barclay Squirming Over Tories’ NHS Spending Plans

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Steve Barclay was left squirming by Sophy Ridge as he failed to explain how the Tories will pay for a major NHS spending boost.

The Sky News presenter repeatedly asked the health secretary where the £2.4 billion to recruit thousands more doctors and nurses will come from.

Rishi Sunak unveiled the long-awaited NHS workforce plan on Friday.

Asked by Ridge how the government would find the money, Barclay would only say it would be “through the Treasury” but refused to give any specifics.

Ridge responded: “What does that mean though? Is that more money for your department or are you going to have to find it from existing NHS budgets or is it borrowing? Where is it coming from?”

In a rambling answer, Barclay said: “This is additional money, it will be announced in the usual way through fiscal events.”

Ridge hit back: “I haven’t heard any new tax rises or spending cuts so I’m assuming it sounds like it must be extra borrowing.

″A hundred per cent of GDP – that the current level of debt. Interest rates rising, so the cost of servicing debt is going up – is that really responsible?

“If Labour announced a policy of £2.4 billion without saying where that money was coming from you would be after them like a rocket.”

Barclay said the policy would also improve the retention of NHS staff, thereby saving money on hiring agency workers.

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Labour Tries To Shut Down Talk Of A Coalition Government With The Liberal Democrats

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Labour’s Wes Streeting has insisted they are “not entertaining” the prospect of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

The shadow health secretary said he did not think it is the “scenario” the country will be in at the next general election.

However, he did not rule out a coalition with the Lib Dems when repeatedly pressed on the possibility in an interview with Sky’s Sophy Ridge.

In separate interview Lib Dem leader Ed Davey explicitly ruled out working with the Tories but did not rule out a coalition with Labour.

Last week’s council results point to a hung parliament at the next general election. They suggest Labour would be the largest party, but short of a majority.

Former prime minister David Cameron and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 12, 2010.
Former prime minister David Cameron and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 12, 2010.

AFP via Getty Images

It could be similar to the situation the Tories found themselves in in 2010 when they formed a coalition government with the Lib Dems.

Asked whether Labour would be prepared to go into coalition with the Lib Dems, Streeting said: “We’re not even entertaining that prospect…

“I just don’t think that is the scenario that we are going to be in after the next general election.”

Asked a third time about local election results pointing towards a hung parliament, he said: “This is a process, not an event. We’re not at the final destination yet in terms of the general election.”

Put to him that he was not ruling it out, he gave examples of why “we shouldn’t read the local elections right across”.

He said: “Take Hull, where I saw through gritted teeth the Liberal Democrats did rather well.

“I heard the Lib Dem leader of Hull council the other night saying ‘well, look, locally, people have voted Lib Dem but at the general election people in this city vote Labour’.”

He added: “We’re not complacent about this and there’s so much more still to come.”

When leader Lib Dem leader Davey was asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show about a coalition with Labour, he said: “That is a hypothetical question because we don’t know what’s going to happen after the next election.”

Put to him that he was ruling out working with the Tories but not Labour, said: “The focus is on getting rid of Conservative MPs. I make no apology for that.”

His deputy leader Daisy Cooper similarly did not rule out a coalition with Labour when challenged.

She told Sky they had “ruled out” working with the Conservatives because of the “damage they are doing to the country”.

But pressed on a coalition with Labour, she replied: “Everything we do between now and the general election will be about focusing on getting Liberal Democrat MPs elected.”

Thursday’s results were disastrous for the Tories who lost some 1,050 seats and control of nearly 50 councils.

It means Labour is now the largest party of local government – overtaking the Conservatives for the first time since 2002.

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‘Not Very Humble’: Minister Grilled Over Broken Relationship With Striking Workers

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A cabinet minister has refused to state a single thing the government has done wrong in its negotiations with striking workers.

Mark Harper said it would not be helpful to “go back over the history” when grilled by Sky’s Sophy Ridge on the wave of strikes rocking Britain.

The presenter told him his response was “not very humble” when many of the workers are in low paid jobs.

It comes as tens of thousands of nurses are preparing to stage a 28-hour strike over pay from 8pm on Sunday.

Rail workers at 14 train operators are also set to strike on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest final on Saturday, May 13.

Ridge asked the senior Tory if the government took some responsibility for the strikes.

She told him: “Effectively the relationship between the government and the people who keep this country running has broken down.

“Some are the people who care for our sick in hospital, the people who teach our children, the people who drive the trains – do you not take some responsibility for that as well?”

Harper told the presenter that when he got the job under Rishi Sunak he tried to reset the relationship and meet with all the unions.

But Ridge hit back: “Well it hasn’t worked, has it?”

Harper insisted it had and hit out at the RMT rail union’s executive for “refusing” to put the latest offer to their members.

Ridge pressed him: “In this long running dispute – talking about the railways, the schools, the hospitals – is there something that you think in retrospect the government should have done differently?”

Harper said that looking at the “overall position” the government had made “fair and reasonable” pay offers that had been accepted by some of the biggest unions.

“So you can’t name a single thing the government’s done wrong?” Ridge hit back: “Don’t you think that’s part of the problem?

“It’s not very humble is it? When these are people who are on low paid jobs, many of them, working really hard and you can’t say a single thing that government’s done wrong?”

Harper hit back: “I don’t think it’s very helpful to just go back over the history and think what could we could have done differently.

“I’m focused on what we’re doing going forward. I think, by the way, on train drivers, they’re actually pretty well paid. The average salary of a train driver is £60,000…”

Ridge interrupted saying she was talking about lower paid workers including nurses and ambulance drivers.

Harper insisted that a “fair and reasonable” pay offer had been accepted by the largest health unions and the health secretary would receive their formal feedback on Tuesday.

The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said they are going back on strike because staffing shortages are putting patients’ lives at risk.

Pat Cullen said they had worked “tirelessly” with NHS England to make sure their strike is as safe as possible for patients.

She added: “There are national exemptions in place for a range of services, for emergency departments, for intensive care units, for neonatal units, paediatric intensive care units, those really acute urgent services.

“We have put national exemptions in place, we’ve worked tirelessly with NHS England.

“In fact, it was the Royal College of Nursing who contacted NHS England to ask for a process to be put in place so that we make sure that the strike was safe for our patients.”

The RCN will hold industrial action from 8pm on Sunday until 11.59pm on Monday night after voting to reject the latest government offer.

Health workers across the NHS have gone on strike several times in past months in disputes over pay and conditions.

Unions including Unison and the GMB have voted in favour of a government pay offer to end the strikes, while Unite and the RCN have voted against.

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Sunday Shows Round-Up: Boris Johnson’s Bregret And Remain Alliance Talks

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