Rishi Sunak was left squirming after being confronted over why he agreed to a £1,000 wager with Piers Morgan on deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The Prime Minister was accused of being “callous and downright cruel” for shaking arms on a wager with the TalkTV presenter on whether or not flights would take off to the African nation earlier than the election. The flagship Tory pledge has been beset by authorized challenges – and Mr Sunak not too long ago refused to ensure that flights would take off earlier than Britain goes to the polls this yr.
In an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored that aired yesterday, Mr Morgan instructed the PM: “I’ll bet you £1,000 pounds to a refugee charity, you don’t get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?”
Mr Sunak shook his hand, telling him: “Well, I want to get the people on the planes, right? Of course, I want to get the people on the plane… Right? I am working incredibly hard to get the people on the planes.”
But right this moment, the PM tried to distance himself from the wager. In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, presenter Rachel Burden instructed him folks struggling to pay their payments may have discovered it “pretty offensive”.
Mr Sunak stated: “I’m not a betting individual and I used to be taken completely without warning in the course of that interview. The level I used to be attempting to get throughout was really concerning the Rwanda coverage and tackling unlawful migration which is one thing I care strongly about. Obviously folks have robust views on this and I used to be simply underlying my absolute dedication to this coverage.”
The presenter told him: “The £1,000 is greater than three price of residing funds mixed. People wonder if you actually perceive the monetary pressures they face.” She confronted him over heart-breaking testimony from charities that people are watering down baby formula because they can’t afford it.
Asked if he could understand that, Mr Sunak said: “My job is to ensure everybody has the monetary safety that they need for them and their households. And in fact, I’m unhappy to listen to that somebody’s in that state of affairs.” He added: “Of course it is unhappy if somebody’s bought a little bit one of their lives they usually’re having to do this. That’s an extremely unhappy factor.
“But my job is to make sure that we can ease those pressures, and actually, if you look at what was causing those pressures, it was inflation: inflation being at 11%, prices going up by that much every year, it was a real struggle for people.
“That’s why it was vital that we prioritised bringing inflation down. It is now coming down. That is actual, that can have an effect on folks as a result of it can begin to ease a few of these pressures.”
Households were “beginning to see mortgage charges come down” and the Government had given “significant” tax cuts.