THE Home Secretary has been accused of avoiding public scrutiny after she refused to appear in front of a Parliamentary committee.

Witham MP Priti Patel insists she will provide oral evidence on the Home Office’s role in fighting the coronavirus pandemic to the Home Affairs Committee but said she is unlikely to do so for several weeks.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee, has requested the Home Secretary appear before MPs to answer questions on how her department is addressing key issues such as domestic violence, policing personal protection equipment for frontline staff, and quarantine arrangements.

Ms Patel has been sent a number of letters in the past month inviting her to give evidence to the committee before March 31 and again before April 15.

However, she says she will only do so at the end of the month, preferring instead to invite Ms Cooper to private briefings with officials and ministers.

In the Home Secretary’s latest letter to Ms Cooper, she says she has become “disappointed at the increasingly adversarial tone” of their exchanges.

It also reveals Ms Cooper has declined the offer to attend private briefings.

Ms Cooper has since replied with her own letter, in which she says a delay in giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee would be “inappropriate” as the Home Office needs to provide “reassurances” on how it is dealing with the Covid-19 crisis.

She wrote: “These are urgent issues with serious consequences for the spread of the disease and the safety of the public which are for the most part neither operationally sensitive nor classified and on which public information is needed.

“That is why we continue to believe that your offer of private briefings as an alternative to a public evidence session was not sufficient.”

The committee has again asked Ms Patel to appear before it within the next week.

However, the Home Office has indicated that request will again be rejected.

A spokesman added: “The Home Secretary has accepted the invitation to appear in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee before the end of April.

"She is currently leading the Home Office response during this national crisis, working tirelessly to keep the British public safe.”