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"All I could see on the surface was all these people fawning over him. It was extremely humiliating and embarrassing."

He said his father was abusive and seemed to delight in humiliating him, typically in public.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately described the U-turn as "the most humiliating climbdown a government has ever faced in its first year in office".

The Liberal Democrats said Reform UK were playing "musical chairman" while Labour characterised the events as a "humiliating hokey-cokey".

"I don't mind admitting that I actually burst into tears because it was so humiliating," he says.