A Home Office minister has been left embarrassed after asking a Question Time audience whether Rwanda and Congo were different countries.
Policing Minister Chris Philp was asked a question from an audience member about whether his family members from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would be sent to Rwanda.
The audience member explained to the MP for Croydon South, about the volatile situation between the DRC and Rwanda.
He expressed concerns about the idea of Congolese people being sent to a hostile country.
The minister's comments was met with bemused reactions from the audience and panel
BBC
Referring to the city of Goma in the DRC, he asked: "Had my family members come from Goma on a crossing right now, would they then be sent back to the country that they’re supposedly warring with?”
The Tory MP responded: "No, I think there’s an exclusion on people from Rwanda being sent to Rwanda."
The audience member responded saying: "They’re not from Rwanda, they’re from Congo."
Philp seemed puzzled, and then asked: "Well...Rwanda is a different country to Congo, isn’t it?"
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The audience member from Tottenham asked the question to the minister
BBC
The minister's response was met with visibly bemused reactions by both audience members and co-panellist Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Philp went on to clarify: "There is a clause in the legislation that says if somebody would suffer seriously irreversible harm by being sent somewhere they wouldn’t be sent."
Shadow minister for immigration and Labour MP for Aberavon said: "First we had Thérèse Coffey not knowing that Kigali is the capital of Rwanda, and now we have Chris Philp not knowing that Congo is a different country to Rwanda. They're sending £576m to a country they can’t even pick out on a map."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said there were “no words” to describe the gaffe and shadow environment secretary Steve Reed said: "He was clueless as a Treasury minister when he helped Liz Truss crash the economy. Now he’s clueless as a Home Office minister who doesn’t know one country from another."
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting was left visibly baffled
BBC
Royal assent was granted to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act yesterday.
Parliament approved the legislation in the early hours of Tuesday morning. On Monday, Sunak said he expected the first flights to Rwanda to take off in 10 to 12 weeks after it was passed.