Was this Priti Patel’s finest hour?

The home secretary showed guts in discussing her personal experience with racism, writes Sean O'Grady

The home secretary addresses the Commons this week (AFP/Getty)

The politics of Priti Patel are pretty plain: take a hard line on immigration, law and order, and welfare and the rest takes care of itself. It doesn’t always work out though, and her first year at the Home Office has been turbulent.

So it is just as well for the home secretary that she had a good day in the House of Commons when she made her statement on the recent demonstrations and outbreaks of violence – and in an unexpected way.

First, as usual, she reinforced her hard-line “law and order” credentials. Doubling down on her tweet pledging that “justice will follow”, she made it clear that those who attacked the police and vandalised monuments will face the full force of the law.