Joanna Cherry has asked why Priti Patel did not resign as Home Secretary if she believed that the UK’s borders should have been closed sooner.
The clash happened during a statement from the Home Secretary in the Commons on border protections.
Defending the UK's Border strategy, Patel told MPs: “From January 2020 the Government has had a comprehensive strategy for public health measures at the border.”
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Questioning the Home Secretary, SNP home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry said: "It is really quite extraordinary that a Home Secretary so obsessed with people from entering the country and deporting those already here should have taken so long to properly address Covid protections at the UK border.
“Now last week, (Ms Patel) admitted that we, quote, ‘should have closed our borders earlier’. So why did she fail to take precautions which she knew were needed?
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“What stopped her, was it her Cabinet colleagues and if so, why didn’t she resign and speak out given the risk of increased transmission from people entering the country?”
Ms Patel responded: “I’ve already outlined and I don’t mean to run through the range of measures that have been undertaken.
"She will be very well aware that cooperation has taken place from the outset through the introduction of travel corridors and also the work that Border Force do across the UK."
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