New Home Secretary James Cleverly faced a grilling on Thursday over whether he had branded the Government’s flagship Rwanda scheme “batshit”.
He was asked repeatedly whether he had used this phrase, as suggested by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, as he did a morning media round after the Supreme Court ruled the Government's Rwanda deportation policy was unlawful.
Appearing on Sky News, he said: "I don't recognise that phrase, and the point that I've made, and the point I made at the Despatch Box, is that the Rwanda scheme is an important part - but only a part - of the range of responses we have to illegal migration."
On BBC Breakfast, the Home Secretary was also asked whether he had made the "batshit" comment.
He responded: "That was a claim made of me not something that I said."
But pressed whether he had not used such a phrase, he added: "It's good for parliamentary theatre.
"The point that I said is the Rwanda scheme is already having a deterrent effect. When we operationalise it, when we get those flights taking off, it will have an even greater deterrent effect."
Asked once more if he had used the specific word, Mr Cleverly said: "I don't remember. I certainly don't remember saying anything like that."
As he moved to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Mr Cleverly could not escape the "batshit" question.
He replied: "Parliamentary knock-about is always fun, it generates good headlines.
"Yvette is a thoughtful and very smart politician and what she has done by throwing that comment into the public domain, she has ensured that we are talking about that comment rather than the massive vacuum where the Labour party's policy on immigration should be."
Questioned on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about the "batshit" claim, the Cabinet minister responded: "You have fallen straight into the trap, if you don't mind me saying, because the Labour Party would love us to discuss this particular issue rather than the gaping vacuum in the Labour Party's immigration policy."
Pressed if he had used the word, he added: "I don't remember a conversation like that."
Former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption described the Government's plan of using an emergency law to declare Rwanda as safe as "constitutionally really quite extraordinary".
But Mr Cleverly dismissed the criticism, telling the BBC: "Find me two lawyers and I will give you three opinions."
In an occasionally tetchy interview, Mr Cleverly said: "Lawyers argue all the time, that's literally what they do. I have very eminent lawyers who take a different view."
He said the Government had "listened very carefully to what was actually said" in the Supreme Court and is taking action to address the "specific deficiencies" identified by the judges.
