This Tory minister didn’t know Rwanda and Congo are different countries.

No wonder Chris Philp is Maximilien Robespierre‘s Fool of the Week.

On the BBC’s Question Time, he was asked by a man from Congo, whose country is on the verge of war with Rwanda, what would happen if someone from his country arrived in the UK by boat. Would that person be deported to Rwanda and what did Philp think would happen to him then?

The correct answer – which Philp eventually reached – was that nobody would be deported there if the evidence was that they could suffer “serious and irreversible harm”.

The problem was that Philp had to be made to understand that Rwanda and Congo are not the same country.

This is an Oxford graduate, and a UK government minister, and he doesn’t even know basic geography:

Correction (April 27, 2024): An earlier version of this story erroneously stated that Philp was “privately-educated”. In fact, he attended St Olave’s Grammar School in Orpington which, although highly selective, is state-run.

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