Piers Morgan issues dark warning to Rishi Sunak after 'grotesque' Rwanda bet

07 February 2024 , 11:14

1105     0

Piers Morgan and Rishi Sunak were slammed for their vile bet

Piers Morgan has issued a warning to Rishi Sunak after their "vile" Rwanda bet.

The TalkTV host issued a £1,000 bet with the Prime Minister on whether deportation flights will get going before the election. Sunak was challenged by Piers over his crisis-hit plan to sent some asylum seekers to Rwanda and recently refused to guarantee that flights would take off before Britain goes to the polls this year.

The prime minister appeared on Piers' show, where the host said: “I'll bet you £1,000 pounds to a refugee charity, you don't get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?” Sunak appeared to accept the bet by shaking hands, telling him: “Well, I want to get the people on the planes, right? Of course, I want to get the people on the plane… Right? I am working incredibly hard to get the people on the planes.”

Piers and Rishi appeared to make a bet with each other over the Rwanda plan (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street)

Former Good Morning Britain host Piers has since warned Sunak that he cannot back out of their bet, despite their pact being branded "grotesque". The PM has said he was "taken by surprise" by Piers' move and that he is "not a betting person". On his TalkTV show last night, Piers dismissed the backlash over the bet.

He said: "I do think that some people may have lost the plot in the maelstrom of pearl-clutching in the last 24 hours and forgotten actually that I did start the process of this wager by saying the bet proceeds would be going to a refugee charity. I was actually trying to flush out the Prime Minister's conviction on a policy that I believe has always been doomed for failure and is bad for this country. He was trying to underscore his genuine belief that it could work."

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

Sunak told the BBC: "Being totally honest, I'm not a betting person, and I was taken by surprise in the middle of that interview. The point I was trying to get across... was actually about the Rwanda policy and about tackling illegal migration. I just was underlying my absolute commitment to this policy and my desire to get it through Parliament, up and running, because I believe you've got to have a deterrent."

Despite branding himself "not a betting person", a clip soon resurfaced of Sunak ranting about enjoying spread-betting on cricket. In interview with the BBC's Test Match Special podcast in July last year, Sunak said spread-betting was "great" and gushed about spending a summer gambling on the cricket.

Speaking about the 2005 Ashes, he said: "I was actually living abroad. I was in the middle of my masters degree in the States, but I was back home in the summer to work. So that summer is ingrained in my memory... I was doing this internship for my new job and we spent the summer watching it.

"But I also, which was quite dangerous, discovered - I think it was around that time that spread-betting had become a thing online, I certainly had never done it before - so I was sitting there working on one side doing my investing, finance job and on the other screen... I was doing Next Wicket Partnership, Next Wicket Four, Innings Total. I just discovered this thing and it was great, so I had the summer doing that as well."

Mia O'Hare