“Pretty Nasty Patel”. That’s what Priti Patel’s peers and colleagues call her. And it’s easy to see why. This Secretary of State has a disturbing history of treating people - especially asylum seekers - with dismissive cruelty.
Patel's already well-known for her super racist Rwanda scheme. If you haven't already heard of it, it's a thinly-veiled attempt to keep vulnerable Black refugees out of the UK. And there are plenty more red flags.
Here are ten reasons why she MUST be booted out of her role now, before any more people get hurt.
1. Zero compassion … even for infants
In 2019, she banned a two-year old Ugandan from coming to the UK with his parents. That’s not a typo. Two years old. In 2019, the little boy was kept separated from his adoptive parents, while his siblings (not adopted) were allowed to enter the country.
Can you even imagine the trauma? A two year old little boy. Up against the Home Office. The reason? Because his parents had missed the Brexit deadline to apply for his visa. How blinded by your own bullshit policies can you get? Where is her sense of compassion or perspective?
2. Hypocritical policies
Priti Patel’s parents immigrated to the UK from Uganda … just like that little boy she denied entry to. With a bit of pressure from Nick Ferrari she reluctantly admitted that they wouldn’t be admitted today under her chokingly-tight regime.
Patel – who's so far right she basically spins around in a manic circle – implemented the greedy points-based system designed to restrict entry to almost everyone. Her own parents, who had a newsagents store, would not have been allowed in.
3. Stealing humanitarian aid
Yep. Disturbingly, Priti Patel took £11 billion of taxpayers’ money – the funds to help people in need – and poured it into shopping malls, five star hotels, restaurants and more in Pakistan.
Patel took the humanitarian aid and lined the pockets of rich businesspeople.
4. £1000-an hour corrupt “business advice”
Patel is so corrupt it hurts to read about her. For years she was taking money from Ministry of Defence (!) contacts in exchange for her “business advice”. Yeah. I’m sure that’s what it was. Because she’s so qualified in business strategy with her politics degree from the University of Essex. (No shade to the University of Essex). £5,000 a month she received from one company for five hours work. That's more than most of us in the UK earn for our full-time job.
I am a freelancer, and let me tell you, £1000 an hour is not normal. £60 is my rate. And I’m actually qualified in my topic.
What makes it worse was that she was the Secretary of International Development at the time. And she was taking money from Israli ministers. Honestly, I can’t even. So f**king deeply greedy and corrupt to her core. Thankfully she got fired over that … But how has she got back in?? Thanks Boris.
5. She’s a bully. A really bad one.
Imagine bullying someone so badly that your boss had to pay out £340,000+ of tax-payers’ money to shush the victim. In 2021, that’s exactly what happened. Sir Philip Rutnam was mercilessly bullied in a “vicious and orchestrated campaign” by Patel, after he tried to get her to change her terrible behaviour.
Patel is well-known for shouting and swearing at colleagues across three government departments. Her bullying behaviour is so abhorrent that ministers were even forced to undergo an enquiry. The report confirmed that she was indeed a raging bully – although an “unintentional” one. Imagine how disgusting you have to be, to be a bully in WESTMINSTER?! The original home of the bullies. She shouldn’t be allowed to manage people, let alone decide their welfare. Something has gone terribly wrong.
6. Paying her HUSBAND tax-payer money
So much corruption, so little time. Ever the schemer, Patel gave her husband the job of office manager(!). Paying him a tidy sum of £25,000 a year – tax payer money OF COURSE. Obviously, it would have been too much to pay him from her own “freelancer” (lol) funds.
So, what qualified him for the role? Not a lot it seems! And he can’t have found much time to do it, since he was already holding down two jobs already.
For someone who’s so against giving immigrants any state money, she’s certainly not opposed to her husband receiving it.
7. Lobbying for British American Tobacco
Like Patel, in my early twenties I had a chance to work for British American Tobacco. Like most twenty-somethings, I smoked. I’d been in their office. I liked the easy access to cheap cigarettes. I was passionately pro-choice in everything (well, I still am). It seemed like a good fit. But something held me back. Somehow, it just felt like kind of an evil thing to do. Even for a 10-a-day, carefree career-woman like me.
Now that I know Patel worked there … that confirms to me that it would have been an evil thing to do. And I’m happy that I walked away (and joined UBS instead yay!). So what did Patel do? Well… you know… all the standard terrible non-humanitarian stuff. She helped cover up worker exploitation. Cozied up to conservative parties with snug little offers. All the classics.
8. Using food shortages as a threat to pass Brexit
There are some things which are deeply inappropriate to say. To anyone. Like threatening countries with food shortages if they don’t follow Brexit policies. Disgusting.
But Patel went one further. She said it to Ireland. F**king hell. The potato famine (genocide?) is a bitter and painful shadow on the relationship between Ireland and England. During this traumatic time, more than one million Irish people starved to death, as all the food was exported to England. For the leader of the Home Office to say this is deeply disturbing. And it reveals a lot about her warped power-lust and priorities.
9. Taking away our right to protest
A-ha! It’s all coming together. Did she take away our right to protest so that she could continue being cold and callous with minimum resistance?
Like a true dictator, Patel is forcing through a bill which gives police the right to shut down UK protests if they are too “noisy”. This comes in response to the Climate Crisis and Black Lives Matter rallies, which didn’t sit right with her. But instead of trying to fix the problem, she prefers to quieten the critics.
10. Disturbing response to the Ukrainian crisis
By no means last is Patel’s response to the people fleeing Ukraine. How is it that these people can bravely escape Putin’s war but they can’t get though the vicious paperwork of the Home Office? While Patel faffs around trying to keep racist far-right groups happy, these people are suffering.
What really gets me is that Patel went to the Ukrainian boarder in person. She saw people escaping their homes, laden with bags and children, desperately looking for a place to stay. How is can she be so unmoved? How can she have zero compassion? I truly believe that she must be a psychopath. Because how else can you explain that? Aside from Putin himself, no other leader has this cold and callous disregard for other people. Patel needs to resign, before she causes even more damage.
There needs to be a simple emergency visa process. Ukrainians need help. Read Vitalii's story to see if you may be able to support.
