by Lamiat Sabin
Parliamentary reporter

BORIS JOHNSON’S government was condemned for its incompetence today after Priti Patel claimed that she had unsuccessfully proposed the closure of Britain’s borders at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Home Secretary said that she had “advocated” shutting borders to incoming travellers in March last year, but the Prime Minister had dismissed the idea.

Her comments, made during an online Conservative Friends of India meeting on Tuesday evening, broke with collective Cabinet responsibility and nullify her defence of the government’s decision not to close borders, as many other countries did.