Top Brexiteer Priti Patel today broke ranks by saying it is unnecessary for David Cameron to go head-to-head in a live EU debate with rivals Boris Johnson and Michael Gove.
Despite fellow Leave campaigners trying to push the Prime Minister into facing them, employment minister Ms Patel said there were already enough TV debates. Her words come days after Mr Johnson and Mr Gove demanded a “face-to-face” TV clash with Mr Cameron, arguing it was what “the public deserve”.
In a further conciliatory move towards Downing Street, Ms Patel made clear she was not targeting Mr Cameron or George Osborne when claiming leading Remainers are too rich to care about the EU’s impact on the poor.
She told the Standard she believed Mr Cameron would make “appropriate” choices in any post- referendum reshuffle and indicated a desire to stay on the frontbench.
On Tuesday Mr Johnson and Mr Gove challenged the Prime Minister to a “face-to-face” debate, which he has steadfastly refused to do. But Ms Patel said: “We have all been campaigning now for weeks and weeks and I think both sides are articulating their point.I don’t actually think this is about getting up on platforms x platforms or y.”
Arguments between Conservative MPs are increasingly bitter, but Ms Patel sought to play down divisions.
She herself was accused of attacking the Prime Minister and Chancellor when she said well-off Remainers did not care about others, but she said she was actually referring to “a lot of wealthy individuals out there, who have been making these comments and they are the ones that benefit from immigration and cheaper labour.”
She dismissed a joke about her first name by a union chief who called it “a contradiction”, and said people who “go down to that level” have lost the argument.
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