Oliver Dowden was told the Tories are “on the brink of destruction” with just four days to go until the general election.
Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips also told the deputy prime minister his party’s campaign had been “a mess”.
The pair clashed as voters prepare to go to the polls on Thursday and with Labour still miles ahead of their rivals.
Phillips said: “This is your 738th weekend in charge. How does it feel to be essentially on the eve of destruction for your party, because that’s what every signal tells us.”
Dowden replied: “In an election campaign you can have commentators and you can have participants. I’m a participant, and my job, whether it’s on the doorstep or in this television studio speaking to you and your viewers at home, is to make the case for the Conservative Party and to warn – mark my words, dogs bark, cats meow and Labour put up taxes.
“Don’t take that risk, it’s in your hands. We have a clear plan to control migration, to start to reduce taxes. The game is on, the fight is on, now is the time for people to make up their minds about the future of this country.”
But Phillips hit back: “Liz Truss essentially made the party of sound money into the party of market chaos, and Boris Johnson made the party of law and order the party of lawbreakers.
“It’s really striking that in this interview you seem to refuse to accept that you’re carrying that burden – the gambling, D-Day, the rain. I mean, it’s been a mess.”
Dowden said: “Having been in power for 14 years, of course we haven’t got everything right. I totally accept that and apologies have been made for various things you’ve mentioned there.
“But fundamentally this is a choice about where we go as a country for the future.”
In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, Dowden hit out at “amateur BBC pundits offering as much insight as I could on football tactics”.
On Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News this morning, the presenter asked the deputy PM: “Do you want to say who you had in mind then?”
Dowden replied: “I think it’s fairly obvious some of the people who have been spewing their views forth on this.”
Phillips then said: “Could the words ‘Gary Lineker’ be floating through this conversation?”
The deputy PM said: “I think people should swim in their own lane. I know nothing about football punditry, I can assure you about that.
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“The wider point I was making is there’s a lot of talking this country down. Actually, I see a country with a manufacturing sector larger than France’s, we’re dominating in artificial intelligence.
“There’s so many reasons to be optimistic about this country, and this doomster scenario that they’re constantly predicting doesn’t actually happen because there’s real strength in our economy.”
Phillip then asked: “So the message to my fellow anchor Gary Lineker is stay in your lane?”
Dowden replied: “Each person should play to their strengths.”
The incoming chair of the BBC, Samir Shah, last week told MPs that “on the face of it” Lineker had broken the corporation’s social media guidelines by criticising Shapps, Anderson and Gullis.
He said: “The BBC’s reputation matters and this isn’t helpful so we do need to find a solution to it and, were I to be chair, I’d be keen to try to bring about such a solution.”
Trevor Phillips has accused Rishi Sunak of using “extreme” language on immigration after the prime minister claimed the UK risks being “overwhelmed” by foreigners.
The prime minister said that could “destroy” British democracy unless the government takes tough action to crack down on the issue.
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He made his comments at a conservative political festival in Rome, where he also heaped praise on the Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Georgia Meloni.
On his Sky News programme this morning, Phillips asked deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden: “Does Rishi Sunak, son of east African Asians, really believe that immigrants are going to – as he put it yesterday – overwhelm us and destroy our democracy?”
Dowden said: “We do have to reassure people that we have got control of our borders, and we cannot have this unsustainable situation where we’re enriching people smugglers, the worst people on the Earth, through allowing this trade in human beings across the Channel.”
But Phillips hit back: “You know I’m not a nit-picker for language, but really ’immigrants are going to overwhelm us and destroy out democracy’?
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″This is quite extreme language, isn’t it? If you hear that from your own prime minister and you are of an immigrant background, it’s not nice.”
Trevor Phillips attacked the PM on his Sky News programme this morning.
John Walton – PA Images via Getty Images
The clash came after Sunak won backing from MPs for his emergency legislation which is designed to finally allow the government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The prime minister is under huge pressure from the right of his party to bring down the numbers coming to the UK from abroad.
Figures revealed last month that net migration – the difference between those leaving and entering the country – hit 750,000 last year.
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That is despite the last Tory election manifesto promising to bring immigration down below 226,000.
Oliver Dowden has condemned the response by “civic society” to last month’s attacks on Israel by Hamas.
In outspoken comments, the deputy prime minister suggested that the deaths of Jewish people on October 7 differently to George Floyd’s murder in 2020, which led to the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement.
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Around 1400 Israelis died in the Hamas attack, with hundreds more taken to Gaza as hostages.
In response to Israel’s retaliatory air strikes on Gaza, which have killed thousands of civilians, pro-Palestine marches have taken place across the UK demanding a ceasefire in the conflict.
Asked about the pro-Palestine marches on Sky News this morning, Dowden said: “I have to say to you, I’m a bit disappointed that if you look at the moral indignation, and the clarity that we saw after the murder of George Floyd in the United States with the Black Lives Matter movement, we haven’t seen across civic society the same kind of moral clarity showing that Jewish lives matter.
“I think that is a cause of hurt to the Jewish community. And it is something that disappoints me and I see it whether it’s on our [university] campuses or elsewhere.
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“We need to send a very clear signal that Jewish people are safe in this country, not just for the sake of Jewish people, but for the sake of British society.”
Presenter Trevor Phillips said: “Are you saying that you think that there is a fundamental problem in this society’s attitude towards Jews, in a now famous phrase that ‘Jews don’t count’ in the way that other minorities do?”
Dowden replied: “I think people need to understand that anti-semitism is racism, full stop. And the same abhorrence we show towards other types of racism we should show towards anti-semitism.
“It’s not an acceptable state of affairs when Jewish people don’t feel safe on the streets of this country because of intimidation and the police should take robust action on that.”
Oliver Dowden was accused of trying to “bamboozle” the public as he refused to say whether he had read all of the government’s plans for dealing with a pandemic before the Covid outbreak.
The deputy prime minister clashed with Laura Kuenssberg as he appeared on the BBC this morning.
It came after a week of damning revelations at the Covid inquiry over Downing Street’s handling of the early months of the pandemic.
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Dowden was a Cabinet Office minister at the time and responsible for how the government dealt with emergencies.
Referring to a clip of the inquiry’s most shocking revelations, Kuenessburg said: “It’s hard to watch any of that and conclude anything other than the government’s handling of Covid was a disaster.”
She added: “You were minister of state for the Cabinet Office at the beginning and part of your job was making sure that the government was ready to deal with big emergencies.
“Had you read all of the plans that were prepared to deal with a pandemic?”
“I said all of this during my evidence session at the Covid Inquiry” responded Dowden.
“I’m sure our viewers want to hear it now too” pressed the BBC host.
Dowden replied: “I gave evidence for over three hours at the inquiry.”
As Kuenssberg told him she was asking a “straightforward question”, a clearly-agitated Dowden said: “Laura if you wish to know the answer to this question, I have to be able to set out the facts of it.
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“The department for health had a responsibility for pandemic preparedness. The role of me in the Cabinet Office was to make sure we had a full analysis of all of the risks.”
Kuenssberg hit back: “You’re giving us a very long, technical answer and I’d like you to give a straightforward answer to our viewers.”
“All of the areas under my responsibility I was across them,” said Dowden.
The presenter responded: “And had you read all of the plans? That’s a straightforward question.
“It sounds like you’re trying to bamboozle our viewers this morning with a very technical explanation of the fact that you didn’t read every single part of the pandemic preparedness plans.”
But Dowden said: “I’m not trying to bamboozle your viewers and I can say categorically that I read the relevant Covid plan.”
Oliver Dowden has likened “social justice warriors” to communist dictator Mao Zedong in an extraordinary attack on so-called cancel culture in the UK and US.
The Tory party chairman and former culture secretary said a “painful woke psychodrama” was sweeping the west and putting individual freedoms at risk.
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He made his comments in a speech to the pro-Trump Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.
Dowden said it was up to conservatives to “mount a vigorous defence of the values of a free society” which he claimed were under threat from “woke ideology”.
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And he took aim at left-wing activists whom he accused of being “engaged in a form of Maoism determined to expunge large parts of our past in its entirety”, citing the defacing of a statue of Winston Churchill during protests in 2020.
The Tory party chairman said the “world watches” the relationship between America and its allies as they attempt to prevent Russian president Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine.
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But Dowden said that just as “rogue states are seeking to challenge the international order…a pernicious ideology is sweeping our societies”.
“In Britain, its adherents sometimes describe themselves as social justice warriors,” he said.
“They claim to be woke, awakened to the so-called truths of our societies.
“But wherever they are found, they pursue a common policy inimicable to freedom.
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“In their analysis, free speech is not a fundamental right necessary for the discovery of truth. To them, it is a dangerous weapon.”
He went on: “For all their fury at so called imperialism, these activists have absolutely nothing to say about that Vladimir Putin’s modern day empire building.
“Indeed, one of the perversities of this worldview is that the imperialist West is always at fault.”
Dowden claimed “woke” ideology is now “everywhere”.
“It’s in our universities, but also in our schools. In government bodies, but also in corporations. In social science faculties, but also in the hard sciences,” Dowden said.
“But I tell you, it is a dangerous form of decadence. Just when our attention should be focused on external foes, we seem to have entered this period of extreme introspection and self-criticism.
“And it really does threaten to sap our societies of their own self-confidence.
“Just when we should be showcasing the vitality of our values and the strength of democratic societies, we seem to be willing to abandon those values, for the sake of appeasing a new groupthink.
“The US and the UK may be different societies but we are joined by the same fundamental values.
“Neither of us can afford the luxury of indulging in this painful woke psychodrama.”
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Alongside the attack on cancel culture and the culture wars, Dowden also hinted at an end to the big public spending and government interference that characterised the coronavirus response.
“We have reached a high watermark of the size of the state,” he said in a Q&A after his speech.
“We can’t repeat the mistakes we have seen in the past whereby in previous national crises, the state has expanded in scope and then has remained permanently much larger.
“We now need to embark on the course of making sure we rein in the size of the state, which in turn allows us to cut taxes.”
The government has promised to do “whatever it takes” to stop six English football clubs breaking away from mainstream competition for form a so-called European “super league”.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden condemned the clubs as “tone deaf” and said he would not stand by and “watch football be cravenly stripped” of what the fans love about it.
He said the government would give “full backing” to the Premier League and other football bodies, which are considering sanctions to stop the clubs breaking away.
But he made clear: “If they can’t act we will.
“We will put everything on the table to prevent this from happening.
“We are examining every option, from governance to competition law and mechanisms that allow football to take place.”
He added: “I want to reassure this House of a very robust response.
“We will do whatever it takes to protect our national game.”
Dowden also said he was “formally triggering” a fans-led review of football promised by the Tories in the party’s 2019 election manifesto, which will be led by former sport minister Tracey Crouch.
He also hinted that the government could change the law to allow the football authorities to take strong action, and that a windfall tax on the clubs involved was under consideration.
“We will do whatever it takes to protect our national game.”@OliverDowden says the government is “examining every option” – including governance reform and competition law – following the announcement of plans for a European Super League.
It came after Conservative Damian Collins warned that under existing powers for the Premier League and FA “there’s nothing that can be done to stop these six clubs joining the ‘super league’”.
He went on: “Is the government prepared to consider amendments to the law in order to give those bodies the powers they need – in particular to prevent clubs joining competitions that have not been sanctioned by either the FA or Uefa?”
Dowden replied: “On competition law, we’re already engaging with Beis (department for business, energy and industrial strategy) in terms of our response to it. We rule out absolutely nothing.
“I know from my conversations with the Premier League and with Uefa they’re already proposing to take some pretty draconian steps to stop this, but we stand ready and we will not allow anything to stop us from doing this in terms of timing, we’ll get on with it as soon as we need to.”
The decision of Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs to create a “closed shop” European competition without promotion or relegation has been met with a fierce backlash from fans, players, politicians and the football authorities.
Critics believe it would fundamentally distort competition in Europe for the benefit of the richest few clubs.
Among the sanctions under consideration by the football bodies are kicking the teams out of the Premier League and banning their players from playing for international teams.
Downing Street earlier said a “range of options” were being considered by the government in response, with a German-style system of fan ownership of clubs and clawing back coronavirus support loans included as possibilities.
Tim MarklandPAFootball fans opposing the European Super League outside Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium on Monday
The European Super League plans also involve Spanish sides Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona and Italian clubs AC Milan, Juventus and Inter Milan.
German giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, as well as French champions Paris St Germain have refused to join the league.
The proposal has support from investment bank JP Morgan, which will provide around £4.3bn in debt financing for the competition.
Shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens called this “a watershed moment for our national game” and said Dowden’s statement was “short on detail and the urgency that this situation merits”.
The Labour frontbencher went on: “Football governance is broken, football finance is broken, and football fans whichever club we support, are ignored.
“The hedge-fund owners and billionaires who treat football clubs like any other of their commodities have no care for history of our football, for the role it plays in villages, towns and cities up and down our country and especially for the fans who are the beating heart of it.
“They should understand their role as custodians rather than cartel chiefs.The future of our national game and all our clubs depend on it.”
Yui MokPACulture Secretary Oliver Dowden takes part in an on air interview outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London before appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show. Picture date: Sunday March 28, 2021.
The Moderna vaccine will arrive in the UK by the end of April, culture secretary Oliver Dowden has said.
Speaking on Sunday, the cabinet minister sought to reassure Brits shipments of the new jab were still on course to reach the health service, after reports last week that the UK vaccine rollout could slide.
He also confirmed all people would get their second jab of the Covid shot within 12 weeks of their first.
Dowden cast doubt over whether people could begin booking summer holidays abroad, however, as a third wave of the pandemic appeared to be taking hold in mainland Europe.
Ministers have insisted they will meet the target of giving a jab to all adults by July, but supplies have been affected by issues in India and a row with the European Union over exports has raised concerns.
Dowden insisted that the vaccination programme remains “on course”, telling BBC One’s Andrew Marr: “We expect that in April Moderna will come.”
The US vaccine has been approved for use in the UK and would be the third to be rolled out after Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
The culture secretary said he could guarantee that everyone will get a second dose of a coronavirus vaccine within 12 weeks of their first after doubts were raised by French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“Yes, of course, we’ve been planning that all the way through. It’s one of the most important considerations as we’ve rolled out the vaccine,” Dowden told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
Ian WestPAPrime Minister Boris Johnson leaves 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, London. Picture date: Wednesday March 17, 2021.
He said that “we clearly don’t currently have a surplus of vaccines” when asked about suggestions the UK was planning to offer 3.7 million jabs to Ireland.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, who advises the government on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M), said he was “a little bit nervous about a full relaxation” planned for June 21.
He told the BBC the road map to easing restrictions in England must be “guided by the data” particularly on vaccines, adding: “The idea that we can suddenly emerge from this in one great bound, I think, is a little over-optimistic.”
Dowden said another lockdown “is the last thing in the world we would want to do” but acknowledged dates in the road map may slip if things worsen.
“Of course they could be delayed if the situation deteriorates but at the moment we’re on track,” he told Marr.
Travel abroad is currently illegal other than for a few reasons but a government taskforce will on April 12 detail a review on whether foreign holidays can return.
Dowden said “all options” are being considered when asked about a possible system that could allow shorter quarantine periods with greater testing for countries deemed less risky.
But he told Ridge there are “challenges around international travel”, pointing towards rising infection rates in Europe.
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