Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has raised a few eyebrows with a 700-mile geographical blunder live on the radio.
In an appearance on LBC, the one-time Conservative leadership contender was chatting about the importance of border control and suggested Italy as an example.
She told listeners: ‘Italy have reinforced their borders.
‘They’ve built a wall – I went to see that wall, they built a wall on the land border between Italy and Turkey.’
In fact, Suella Braverman has not been to see the wall that has been built on the land border between Italy and Turkey.
Not only does the wall not exist, the land border doesn’t exist.
The two countries are a little under 700 miles apart at their closest points on land.
Walking in a straight line between Trieste in the north-east of Italy and Edirne in the far west of Turkey would take you through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and finally Bulgaria.
Even by sea, there’s the small matter of Greece between the countries.
However, there might be a simple explanation for the Tory backbencher’s gaffe, and it’s down to a quite significant European mix-up.
In 2023, while home secretary, Braverman travelled to the Greek region of Evros to check out the sturdy fence that had been built on the Turkish border to act as a deterrent.
Italy, Greece, Greece, Italy – they’re both mostly famous for people who wore togas and lived thousands of years ago. Both have capitals full of picturesque old ruins.
It’s an easy mistake to make. I’m sure nobody has noticed.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
