Priti Patel was 'accelerated' to Cabinet position because she's British-Asian, says senior Tory MP

Priti Patel was “accelerated” into the Cabinet because she is of Asian heritage, a senior Conservative MP has claimed.

Crispin Blunt, a former justice minister who has also chaired the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said the International Development Secretary was promoted despite “lacking grounding in ministerial experience”.

He told Sky News: “She’s a great British Asian representative in the Conservative Party and has been accelerated through to very senior positions because we need good advocates of the whole community representing our party but with the lack of grounding in ministerial experience that then comes with that, sometimes these mistakes can be made.

“So, I would have been inclined to accept her apology but there may be more developments which means it’s gone beyond what the Prime Minister sees as acceptable.

It comes as Ms Patel was ordered to return home from a trip to Uganda by Theresa May amid widespread speculation that she is to be sacked for reportedly failing to declare meetings she held with senior Israeli politicians.

She admitted having held 12 meetings in Israel during an apparent family holiday in the country in August. However, further revelations suggest she may have failed to mention another two meetings with Israeli politicians.

Asked if he believed Ms Patel was not qualified to serve as a Cabinet minister, Mr Blunt replied: “I’m not saying [she was not up to the job] but it’s very important that the Tory party, like all institutions, bring on people who are going to be good advocates for the party and for the community and to that extent, Priti Patel is a huge asset to the Tory party, to have a British Asian woman in a senior position in the Conservative Party is a great asset for us.

“Even if she pays the penalty here because of her lack of experience and the decisions she took on that experience, she’ll still be around and she’ll recover in the medium term because she’s got all the enthusiasm and talent that got her to where she is today.”

Ms Patel is under heavy pressure after it was revealed that she failed to inform the Foreign Office of meetings she held in Israel in August, including with the country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The International Development Secretary was allowed to keep her job after apologising but Downing Street is said to have been furious at further claims that she had also met with Israeli politicians in September - once in Parliament and once in New York.

However, the Jewish Chronicle claimed on Wednesday that Ms Patel had reported meetings when she met with Ms May last week and had been advised by Number 10 not to admit publicly to the New York meeting in order to avoid embarrassing the Foreign Office. Downing Street strongly denied the report.