Suella Braverman was sacked for her unauthorised attacks on Britain’s left-wing police forces and for running her mouth on issues like immigration and homelessness. Yet within hours of her departure, the former home secretary ensured that the focus was not on her conduct but on that of Rishi Sunak.
In a parting letter, described as “stinging,” “scathing” and even “blistering,” Braverman accused Sunak of betrayal, weakness and of possessing “no real intention of fulfilling your pledge to the British people.”
The scorn flowed after the prime minister, who is said to have been a firm supporter of Brexit, booted Suella, one of the firmest Brexiteers in government, and welcomed David Cameron, who was one of the staunchest campaigners for Remain.
Braverman referenced a written deal the pair struck during his second leadership campaign, “my support [during which was] … pivotal.” In this “document,” which journalists are now waiting to be released in full, Braverman claims she agreed to back Sunak if he stuck to four “assurances.”
- Cutting legal migration to 245,000 a year,
- Legislating against legal treaties like the European Convention on Human Rights in Britain’s asylum law,
- Scrapping EU laws still in British legislation and
- Offering “unequivocal” advice to schools protecting biological sex.
The former home secretary said the PM has “manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies,” adding that her efforts to get them into action have been met with “equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest.”
By Wednesday afternoon, the letter had been viewed by more than 30 million accounts on social media.
The response to this has been varied. A number of papers have taken to branding the former home secretary as “Salty Suella,” while former Tory leader Michael Howard accused her of failing to consider the “common good” and of “insubordination.”
Yet aside from all the controversy, writer and academic Matthew Goodwin said that, however outspoken she may have been, “Suella Braverman spoke for a large majority of people in Britain, people who care deeply and intensely about what is happening to the country they love.” He added that these are people who back many of the measures talked up during the Brexit campaign, and in what has been described as the populist wave that followed it. People who
do want to see legal immigration dramatically lowered, who do want to see multiculturalism reformed so newcomers are encouraged to integrate and Hamas militants are not given British citizenship, who do want to see foreign nationals who glorify terrorism deported from Britain, who do want to live in a country with strong borders, who do want police to take pro-Hamas supporters, radical Islamists and Black Lives Matter demonstrators as seriously as they take far-right goons and lockdown protestors, and who do want their national broadcaster to call out Islamist terrorism when they see it.
Braverman has clearly tapped into an area of politics that many Britons believe is wrongly left ignored. But then the question remains whether she believes in any of this or simply says it because she knows it goes down well. Indeed, some might find it hard to believe that after eight years in parliament, Braverman has only just realised that the Conservative Party does not do what it says.
Suella’s speech at the National Conservatism conference in May this year, in which she spent a good deal of time discussing her family history, was widely viewed as a leadership pitch. So, too, were her tough comments on immigration in September. And now, in this letter, she writes that Sunak lacks “the qualities of leadership that this country needs.” There are few clearer ways of saying “I could lead better than you.”
Commenting in The Daily Telegraph, Camilla Tominey noted that “this isn’t simply a case of a former home secretary exacting revenge on the prime minister who sacked her. It is also undoubtedly an unashamed leadership pitch.”
And all the current prime minister could say in response was that he believes in “actions not words.” If just one line of Braverman’s letter is to be believed, this statement is questionable, at best.
Braverman’s Letter Is Her Clearest Leadership Bid Yet
Former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman
Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP
Suella Braverman was sacked for her unauthorised attacks on Britain’s left-wing police forces and for running her mouth on issues like immigration and homelessness. Yet within hours of her departure, the former home secretary ensured that the focus was not on her conduct but on that of Rishi Sunak.
In a parting letter, described as “stinging,” “scathing” and even “blistering,” Braverman accused Sunak of betrayal, weakness and of possessing “no real intention of fulfilling your pledge to the British people.”
The scorn flowed after the prime minister, who is said to have been a firm supporter of Brexit, booted Suella, one of the firmest Brexiteers in government, and welcomed David Cameron, who was one of the staunchest campaigners for Remain.
Braverman referenced a written deal the pair struck during his second leadership campaign, “my support [during which was] … pivotal.” In this “document,” which journalists are now waiting to be released in full, Braverman claims she agreed to back Sunak if he stuck to four “assurances.”
The former home secretary said the PM has “manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies,” adding that her efforts to get them into action have been met with “equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest.”
By Wednesday afternoon, the letter had been viewed by more than 30 million accounts on social media.
The response to this has been varied. A number of papers have taken to branding the former home secretary as “Salty Suella,” while former Tory leader Michael Howard accused her of failing to consider the “common good” and of “insubordination.”
Yet aside from all the controversy, writer and academic Matthew Goodwin said that, however outspoken she may have been, “Suella Braverman spoke for a large majority of people in Britain, people who care deeply and intensely about what is happening to the country they love.” He added that these are people who back many of the measures talked up during the Brexit campaign, and in what has been described as the populist wave that followed it. People who
Braverman has clearly tapped into an area of politics that many Britons believe is wrongly left ignored. But then the question remains whether she believes in any of this or simply says it because she knows it goes down well. Indeed, some might find it hard to believe that after eight years in parliament, Braverman has only just realised that the Conservative Party does not do what it says.
Suella’s speech at the National Conservatism conference in May this year, in which she spent a good deal of time discussing her family history, was widely viewed as a leadership pitch. So, too, were her tough comments on immigration in September. And now, in this letter, she writes that Sunak lacks “the qualities of leadership that this country needs.” There are few clearer ways of saying “I could lead better than you.”
Commenting in The Daily Telegraph, Camilla Tominey noted that “this isn’t simply a case of a former home secretary exacting revenge on the prime minister who sacked her. It is also undoubtedly an unashamed leadership pitch.”
And all the current prime minister could say in response was that he believes in “actions not words.” If just one line of Braverman’s letter is to be believed, this statement is questionable, at best.
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