James Cleverly was left squirming after Kay Burley asked him if “saving the prime minister’s skin is more important than saving the planet”.
The Sky News presenter grilled the home secretary after net zero minister Graham Stuart was ordered to fly back from the COP28 summit in Dubai in order to take part in last night’s crunch vote on the government’s Rwanda bill.
Stuart then had to fly back again - a round trip of 6,800 miles.
Burley asked Cleverly: “Is saving the prime minister’s skin more important than saving the planet?”
The minister replied: “There was a minister over at COP, there’s been a minister at COP throughout the sneior level week that we’ve seen.
“The foreign secretary’s been there, the prime minister’s been there, other ministers are there.”
Burley said: “But this guy was flown back, wasn’t he, for the vote?”
Cleverly said: “There was the vote and it was an important vote and the whole point of having the team of ministers is that different ministers represent the government.
“We had senior ministerial engagement, we had a senior minister involved in negotiations and we also had a successful night when it came to the vote last night as well.
“We have to do more than one thing at a time - that’s what being in government’s all about.”
In the end, the government won by 44 votes, meaning Stuart’s presence in the Commons was not needed.
A Labour spokesperson said: “What better demonstration of the price we’re all paying for the Tory psychodrama than the government having to vacate the world stage during crucial climate talks because the prime minister is too weak to lead a party too divided to be led.”