Priti Patel calls for a Royal Commission to investigate the debanking scandal

Asked if she would support a Royal Commission inquiry, she told GB News: “I do. I don't think this can be left to politicians or to Parliament anymore, I genuinely feel that way.

“These are banks that were too big to fail just over ten years ago and they've literally got to the state where they've been living off our money, taxpayers’ money.

“NatWest is still owned, 38 per cent of it, by the state, so there are so many questions here. I don't think the regulators can be trusted anymore.

“I think there are wider inquiries that are needed about the regulatory environment that we've had because, to be quite frank, I'm an MP, I'm a politician. This has just been rubber-stamped through Parliament year after year…”

In an interview with Camilla Tominey, she said: “I think this raises endless questions…can the political establishment actually be trusted to ask the right questions, be independent, be probing, or even the Establishment itself, the regulators, and the Bank of England?

“So, we have to look at this in a very, very different light…these are the types of issues that are affecting ordinary people in their day to day lives.

“And this is because of the government, the state regulation, the size of the state, and the way in which quite frankly institutions have been given a licence to operate in this way, and there's no scrutiny and there's no public accountability.”

On net zero, she said: “Well, first of all my view on this is that actually we need to pause all this activity. 2030 is not that far away, in a click of fingers 2050 will be upon us. The public are not ready for this.

“And importantly, we cannot just have the state, the Government, central government just sort of saying across, again, institutions, local councils, county councils, these are the targets that you have to meet when we don't have the technology.

“We're not ready. Now if we want a sensible conversation about climate and the impact of climate change, recognising there are problems is one thing, absolutely.

“But making sure that we have the tools and the ability that doesn't impose costs and taxes on ordinary people, this is a space that we have to be wary of.”

She added: “All of this is about mission creep, how these policies are just being rolled out. Boundaries are being pushed more and more.”

On immigration, she said: “The clock is ticking and the public are not seeing change.

“And the problem the Government now has is that the story is all about accommodation. They've made all the stories about buying tents, about Wethersfield, RAF Wethersfield, which is in Braintree district, in my district, we've got a judicial review against the Government because we feel that that plan is the wrong plan.

“And actually it's now affecting our local community. We've got a public health outbreak, for example.”

Asked about the Conservative Party’s general election prospects, she said: “So look, I'm an optimist about this because quite honestly…we’ve got to come together, be united and actually stand up for core Conservative values and beliefs and put the public at the heart of all of that then we can, we need to be on their side.”