A Tory Minister who appeared to mix up Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on BBC Question Time has said he was "struggling" to hear the question.
Chris Philp gave the excuse just days after the audience gasped as the Tory MP asked "Rwanda is a different country to Congo, isn't it?"on the programme. The exchange also led to a short outburst of laughter while fellow panellist Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting's eyes darted around the studio in disbelief.
Appearing on the BBC's Sunday Laura Kuenssberg's programme alongside Mr Streeting once again, the Home Office Minister attempted to explain the embarrassing blunder.
He said: "You can probably tell from that clip I was struggling a little bit to hear the question and when I put that point to him I was asking a clearly rhetorical question rather than a substantive question as I think any fair minded listener would conclude." Asked whether he practised his "impressive" eye-roll, Mr Streeting also told the programme: "It was either side-eye or jaw-dropping moment. I was quite dumbstruck by the whole moment. Chris said it was a rhetorical question - I'll believe Chris".
It came after Mr Philp responded to a BBC Question Time audience member, who said he came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, on the Rwanda deportation scheme. They asked: "Had my family members come from Goma (a city on the country's border) on a crossing right now, would they then be sent back to the country they are supposedly warring - Rwanda? Does that make any sense to you?"
Mr Philp replied: "No, I think there's an exclusion on people from Rwanda being sent to Rwanda." After the audience member objected that his parents were "not from Rwanda", the Tory MP appeared to ask: "Well, I mean, Rwanda is a different country to Congo isn't it? "It's a different country?".
After the programme aired on Thursday evening the Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: "First we had Thèrése Coffey not knowing that Kigali is the capital of Rwanda, and now we have Chris Philp not knowing that Congo is a different country to Rwanda…They're sending £576m to a country they can’t even pick out on a map".