FEW could have predicted such a swift and bold re-entry into Government.
Priti Patel is now the second Asian to hold one of the four great offices of state – her predecessor Sajid Javid has gone from Home Secretary to Chancellor and become the first British Asian to hold what is to many people, the second most important job in Britain.
So how did Patel – who was unceremoniously sacked in 2017 when she was a cabinet minister for the department for international development – make it not just back into government but into the number three or number four position.
Whatever it is, Patel is back and puts her in great position for possibly the top job itself – when Boris Johnson decides (eventually) that he wants to spend more time with his family – as the phrase goes.
There was a little shock that someone with such strident views had been placed in such a position of responsibility and the debacle of her departure had been swiftly consigned to the history books and would only be one chapter now in this politician’s career.
How, you might genuinely ask did Patel manage to turn her situation around, and so quickly too? A simple answer might be Brexit. She has been a staunch supporter – and was a prominent member of the Leave campaign.
She gave the Leave campaign real credibility with some non-white communities. While many opponents labelled Brexiteers and the like as closet racists and vehemently anti-immigration and incapable of seeing anything on race or equality other than through the prism of Fortress Britain, and white privilege – she was the living face of a different argument altogether.
Her current boss also clearly likes her and values her contribution – she is as tough as he is and no doubt, he imagined she would need these qualities as a home secretary. It seemed only hours into the job she announced that criminals would face tougher sentences and echoing one of her boss’ early pledges, she backed 20,000 more police under the new government.
It’s been something of a whirlwind since her return to the front bench, she’s rarely missed an opportunity to hammer home her law and order credentials and in her mission statement, she signaled a change in tack.
Under Theresa May (as home secretary), when David Cameron was the prime minister, the Tories had somewhat reined back from their previous support for the police. Rank and file officers had been moving away for some time (earlier) – austerity had hit police numbers hard, and many were worn down by paperwork and not impressed by having to do more with less staff and less resources.
Surprisingly, May also castigated police for what she saw as their excessive and improper use of stop and search. While community relations did improve – according to those who backed the move, in more recent times, it’s been cited as a reason why knife crime is on the rise, and Patel is keen to burnish her image as a no-nonsense home secretary who has the police services’ back on the important issues of the day.
She told the Daily Mail that the Tories “are the party of the police and police officers”. In that very first Daily Mail interview she said she wanted criminals to to “feel terror” on the streets and not the other way around.
In many ways for diehard Conservatives, this was a home secretary who meant business and would restore the party’s reputation for a tough law and order stance. “Quite frankly, with more police officers out there and great police presence, I want them (criminals) to literally feel terror at the thought of committing offences,” she told the Mail. Politically her project is of paramount importance – there will be clear blue water between Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour and also Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrat Party.
Cameron’s “hug a hoodie” (when the Conservatives looked to soften their image on locking up people and clamping down on even minor offences) has been well and truly buried. Patel told the Mail: “The Conservative Party is the party of law and order.
Full stop. The defence of our nation, defence of our streets, and law and order are at the heart of our values.”
She said that the police should be tough on drug offences – including cannabis and that it was one way to tackle the increasing numbers of young people being drawn into gangs and associated violence. She has softened her stance on some issues, and those looking for some liberal twangs in between the fire and brimstone, do or die in a ditch (on October 31), Brexit the Johnson government promises, will find it in parts of the immigration policy. Already the government has indicated that foreign students at British universities will be allowed to stay on to work for two years post their degree.
That had not been the case under May’s regime. Many universities welcomed the move. On immigration, she like her boss knows the idea of ‘Global Britain’ after Brexit, will be an important message. She told the Mail that Britain will adopt an Australia-style point system, enabling those with skills the country needs, to come and make the UK their home (at least for a while).
The Mail interview included a trip to Tilbury Docks where she pronounced that Britain was ready for a no-deal Brexit and reminded the paper that Essex (where her Witham constituency is located) is 70 per cent Brexit. Few cabinet ministers have been as loquacious as her – just before the Tory party conference she revealed she had fought off a vicious knife attack.
Talking to The Sun, she said: “It was absolutely horrendous, I was really really upset.” The incident took place some months before she become an MP in 2012. Her husband had been in hospital, and she was returning home and got out of a taxi when she noticed a group of youths sitting on her garden wall.
She asked them to move so she could get to her front door and then one of them pulled a knife and had a broken bottle in his other hand. She used her rucksack to protect herself and managed to get to her front door and ring the police. She was appalled by their response. They told her there was a little they could do – it was just a bunch of local youths getting high on drugs.
They asked whether she had considered moving because of the incident. “That upset me the most. I was absolutely incensed.” Clearly, she is signaling a very different approach – critics might dub it ‘populist’ but there can be little doubt that it goes down well with the Tory base. Stop and search and Tasers will be added to most police officers’ ar - moury and the police would be get backing to the hilt from her.
“I want every police officer to know that we are not just going to give them resources but give them protection and knowledge that I will stand by them.” On the eve of her own address to the party faithful, she told the paper the Tories would end ‘slapon-the-wrist culture’ and impose heavier punishments on those committing crime, especially those who attacked police officers. She was also looking to give the National Crime Agency increased powers and equip it to take on organised crime. There would also be initiatives on local policing.
During the same weekend, Patel refused to allow former ISIS brides to return to Britain. East Londoner Shamima Begum left her family home to join ISIS as a 15-year-old. She married an ISIS fighter and has lost three children since being part of the terror outfit that occupied significant parts of Syria and Iraq before being militarily defeated and driven out in 2017. The Sunday Times revealed that Tooba Gondal, an other ISIS recruit, and described as an ISIS matchmaker also wants to return to Britain. Patel told The Sun: “No way, no way.”
Authoritative, bold and tough, Patel is a rising star within the party and this Essex girl has what it takes to get to the top. She made it to parliament in 2010 after a long search for a constituency and was drafted into the number 10 policy unit in October 2013 and was also appointed the first ever diaspora champion (to India) that year. Her first government appointment was as a treasury minister from July 2014. Less than a year later, she was promoted to employment minister in May 2015 (when she also joined the Privy Council), and a year after that was promoted again to International Development Secretary in July 2016, replacing Justine Greening (Patel had lent her support to Theresa May in the leadership contest).
She has been a member of the Conservative Party since her student days and was attracted to the fold by Margaret Thatcher. Stateeducat - ed and brought up in a series of convenience stores, she has spoken about the horrors of Eu - rope to us previously. In 1992, when the then government tried to keep the pound within the European Exchange Rate Mechanism and ended up jacking interests to about 15 per cent. Patel’s parents were among the many who were run out of business at the time. It was a salutary lesson for Patel and put Europe in the bad books for her personally.
There is a little doubt her reputation has been restored with this new position – her sacking came about because she had meetings with senior Israeli politicians when she was on holiday, and neither the prime minister or the foreign secretary knew about them (though Johnson in the role then is said to have known something).
All that is behind her. If you want to know her direction of travel, you need to look at a book she co-authored with Dominic Raab and Liz Truss, both have senior roles in he Johnson administration. Called Britannia Unchained it is coruscat - ing attack on the British post-war economic policy (with perhaps the exception of the Thatcher years) and calls for radical change.
It says British workers are mostly lazy and unproductive – sadly, figures do bear this out, she would argue. She calls for a cultural change and for youngsters in Britain to aspire to be med - ics or entrepreneurs (in the way that children of Indian origin think). It remains to be seen whether the Home Secretary and this government will last the course, and if they do win an election in the near future, you can bet that Patel will be a prominent campaigner.