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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Liam Thorp

Rishi Sunak has a major weak point and it just got brutally exposed

If there was a honeymoon period for the new Prime Minister, it is well and truly over.

Rather than the cool and confident persona Rishi Sunak tries to exude, today he was left floundering and reaching for desperate attack lines as he was pummelled by Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Labour know exactly where Sunak's weak point lies - and it was sat just a metre or two from where he rose to answer questions in the Commons today.

READ MORE: READ MORE: Liverpool set for winter snow as forecasters share exact dates

His decision to appoint Suella Braverman as Home Secretary just six days after she had been forced to resign from the same position for a major ministerial and security breach, is one that will continue to haunt him.

He may well have believed it was a deal he had to make in order to keep Boris Johnson off the ticket and to ensure he became Prime Minister, but he has started his time in office hamstrung by the decision - particularly as the Home Secretary now finds herself engulfed by failings in the country's refugee and asylum system.

It was those failings that Mr Starmer picked up on repeatedly, forcing an admission from the new Prime Minister about the lack of asylum claims being processed.

When Starmer asked: "Of all the people who arrived in small boats last year, how many asylum claims have been processed?", Sunak was forced to respond "Not enough".

Starmer followed up with a direct attack on Ms Braverman, stating: "He says not enough, you can say that again, only 4% of people arriving in small boats processed. According to the bookies, the Home Secretary has a better chance of becoming the next Tory leader than she has of processing an asylum claim in a year."

Picking up on news stories that the Home Secretary reportedly ignored legal advice that people should be moved out of the Manston processing centre, he asked the Prime Minister for a yes or no answer.

In another weak moment, Mr Sunak said: "He knows the government's policy on commenting on legal advice."

Starmer added that in his former role as Director of Public Prosecutions: "I prosecuted people smugglers, he can't even get an asylum seeker claim processed."

Pivoting back to the under-fire Home Secretary, Starmer added: "I think the answer to the question about legal advice is yes, he just hasn't got the guts to say it, weak. He did a grubby deal with her, putting her in charge of Britain's security, just so he could dodge an election. She's broken the ministerial code, lost control of a refugee centre and put our security at risk."

"Get a proper Home Secretary, start governing and get a grip."

In what most commentators agreed was a weak and desperate final response, the Prime Minister reached again for comments about Mr Starmer supporting former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

It was a sign of the pressure Mr Sunak is already under after just weeks in the job and today he did not have any answers.

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