James Cleverly has become the second Tory leadership candidate to decline to apologise for record legal migration, saying he would not be the "punchbag" for the last Government.
It comes after Cleverly's rival Dame Priti Patel also told the podcast that the Conservatives do not have to apologise for allowing millions of migrants to move to the UK in the party's final years in power.
The Conservatives have been widely criticised for failing to cut net migration despite repeated manifesto pledges at the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections.
However Cleverly, who was Home Secretary from November last year to last month's general election, said: "We promised to cut it. We didn't cut it and we were punished at the ballot box."
James Cleverly was defiant and refused to apologise for breaking his party's promise to bring down migration
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Cleverly told Chopper's Political Podcast that in the eight months when he was in charge of migration policy "the numbers headed in the right direction".
But he refused to apologise for the wider failure by successive Tory governments.
He said: "The reason I'm a bit hesitant is I have spent much of my time as a minister defending the government on the airwaves.
"I think I've done [the BBC's] Question Time 14 times. So I've taken it on the chin on behalf of other people's decisions for a very, very long time.
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James Cleverly appeared on Chopper's Political Podcast
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"Now that I am no longer a government minister, now that I'm setting out my agenda and my plans, please forgive me if I'm taking a short break from being the punchbag for other people's decisions."
Cleverly added that he expected the Labour government to have to start reopening hotels to house migrants "as sure as eggs are eggs".
Figures this week show that 7,000 people have crossed from France by small boat since Labour's election landslide last month.
He said: "It's a big frustration for me that so much of that money got tied up domestically. But again, um, as a Home Secretary, I was reducing the reliance on hotels.
"We put over 150 hotels back into commercial use. Those hotels are going to be reopened as sure as eggs are eggs."
Listen to James Cleverly's interview on Chopper's Political Podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts, or watch it on GB News' YouTube channel.
