London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday morning and began by sacking his Home Secretary, Indian-origin politician Suella Braverman, after days of speculation over her job since it emerged a controversial newspaper article attacking the Metropolitan Police was published without clearance from her boss, according to reports coming out from Downing Street.
Who is Suella Braverman?
The 43-year-old Goan-origin Cabinet minister has repeatedly courted controversy in her senior UK Cabinet role, most recently by accusing the Met Police of "playing favourites" when tackling aggressive Israel-Gaza protests in an article in The Times.
Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman KC, born on 3 April 1980 as Sue-Ellen Fernandes, is a British politician and barrister. She held the position of Home Secretary twice, first from 6 September 2022 to 19 October 2022, and later from 25 October 2022 to 13 November 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, Braverman served as the chair of the European Research Group from 2017 to 2018 and as the Attorney General for England and Wales from 2020 to March 2021 and again from September 2021 to 2022. She entered Parliament as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Fareham in Hampshire in 2015.
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During the January 2018 cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed Braverman as the parliamentary under-secretary of state for exiting the European Union. However, in November 2018, Braverman resigned in protest against May's draft Brexit withdrawal agreement. She was later appointed as the Attorney General for England and Wales and the Advocate General for Northern Ireland in the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Her appointment automatically conferred the title of Queen's Counsel.
After Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation in July 2022, Braverman contested the Conservative Party leadership election from July to September. However, she was eliminated after the second round of voting. Braverman then backed Liz Truss's bid for Conservative leader and was subsequently appointed as Home Secretary on 6 September 2022 when Truss assumed the role of Prime Minister. However, Braverman resigned from the position on 19 October 2022 amid criticism for violating the Ministerial Code by using her personal email to send a sensitive official document to a political ally. Six days later, Rishi Sunak, Truss's successor, reinstated Braverman as Home Secretary. Nevertheless, she was dismissed from her post by Sunak on 13 November 2023.
Why was Braverman sacked?
Sunak had been under pressure from sections of his Conservative Party as well as faced attacks from the Opposition for allowing her to continue in her job after she went ahead with the article in a perceived breach of the ministerial code.
Braverman went against Sunak last week by releasing an article that criticised the police for employing "double standards" in handling protests. The opposition Labour party claimed that this stance escalated tensions during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Saturday.
In her article titled ‘Police must be even-handed with protests’, Braverman criticised a pro-Palestinian demonstration scheduled for November 11. She wrote, “Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law? I have spoken to serving and former police officers who have noted this double standard.”
She accused the organisers of the protest of having links with "terrorist groups, including Hamas”, and tagged them as “hate marchers”.
Following that, on the day of protest, over 140 individuals were detained when far-right counter-protesters clashed with the police, who were attempting to prevent them from engaging with the 300,000 pro-Palestinian marchers.
The Labour opposition claimed that Braverman's remarks incited the clashes. Additionally, members of the Conservative Party criticized her, expressing frustration at Sunak's delay in dismissing the minister.
Braverman's statement
"Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter-protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage," Braverman said in a statement on Sunday evening following far-right violence during the protests over the weekend.
"The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Antisemitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling," she said. However, her intervention in support of the police may have come a little too late to save her job in the end.
(With inputs from PTI)
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