Tory home secretary Priti Patel says ‘you can’t blame the government for poverty’

‘Well it’s not the government though, is it?’ she says

Priti Patel has been criticised for claiming the government is not to blame for poverty.

“Everybody just says it’s the government as if it’s this bland blob you can just go and blame,” the Conservative home secretary told BBC North West.

When asked if the government was responsible for poverty, Ms Patel said: “Well, it’s not. It’s all parts of society and the structures. Local authorities have a role to play, education, public services, which are locally led and locally run.”

Labour politicians condemned Ms Patel’s remarks by recalling the impact of government austerity measures, which were announced in 2010.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said: “Priti Patel’s claims in this video are yet another example of the Tory government cruelty.”

He said: “Local government has suffered enormously from vicious Tory cuts. Of course we can blame the Tory government for poverty.”

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, called the home secretary “completely out of touch” after her remarks.

“I blame austerity for the rise in poverty,” he said. “I blame this Tory government for austerity.”

Ms Patel made the comments while speaking to BBC North West, which shared a clip of the interview on Twitter, on a visit to Barrow in Cumbria, northwest England.

The home secretary called statistics that four-in-10 children in parts of Barrow are born into poverty “appalling”.

When the interviewer suggested the government could be responsible, Ms Patel replied: “Well it’s not the government though, is it?”

Parliamentary candidate David Lammy also criticised Ms Patel’s comments: “Local authorities depend on Westminster for much of their funding.”

He said: “They have been forced to cut spending by an eye-watering 30 per cent since 2010. The Tories devolved austerity and now want a scapegoat.”

Soon after the BBC had posted the video, it was removed from its Twitter feed, breaking the link in a variety of other tweets. The account reshared it later on, apparently correcting a mistaken quotation that had been included in the original post.

Last year, an in-depth study found the north of England had been the hardest hit by Tory-led government spending cuts.

Think Tank IPPR North found in 2018 that total public spending in the north had fallen by £6.3bn since 2009-10, more than for any other region.

The north, comprising the northeast, northwest and Yorkshire and Humber regions, had also lost 300,000 government jobs since 2009 and included eight of the 10 worst-hit police forces.

Chancellor Sajid Javid announced “the end of austerity” earlier this year as he pledged extra cash for public services.

The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.