Tory MP says British-born Priti Patel is in Boris Johnson’s cabinet partly because ‘she’s a woman from the Indian subcontinent’

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Iain Duncan Smith has said that Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, was appointed partly because she “comes from the Indian subcontinent”, despite the fact that Ms Patel is a British citizen who was born in London.

The former Tory leader was being interviewed by Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning.

“What first attracted Boris Johnson to give a massive promotion to the hard Brexiteer Priti Patel, who was forced out of office after she lied about pursuing her own foreign policy?” Mr Robinson asked.

“She’s only there because she’s a Brexit hardliner, isn’t she?”

“She’s there because of ... three things, I think,” Mr Duncan Smith said.

“One, because she does believe in the project – we have to leave by the 31st and if you’ve got 100 days you cannot have people who say ‘Do you know what, I’m unsure about this?

“Two, I think it’s very important that Boris has somebody in there who represents, now, the changing nature of Britain. She’s a woman, she’s also comes from the Indian subcontinent, I mean, this is really important.

“And three, I think really importantly is, he’s got a wider agenda than just Brexit.

“So she’s there to make sure that national police support is much bigger. We’ve also got a huge change to the way we deal with migration.”

Mr Duncan Smith’s comments in defence of the Home Secretary were inaccurate.

Ms Patel’s parents moved to the UK from Uganda in the 1960s and are of Indian origin but their daughter was born in Harrow, in Greater London.

The Home Secretary was previously fired by Theresa May from her post as International Development Secretary for conducting secret meetings with Israeli officials while on holiday.

Boris Johnson has appointed a number of ethnic minority MPs to government, including Ms Patel, Sajid Javid, who is chancellor and Rishi Sunak, who is chief secretary to the Treasury.