Why did Rishi Sunak sack Suella Braverman as UK home secretary?

Suella Braverman has been a controversial figure ever since she joined the Conservative Party government. Now she has been sacked by United Kingdon prime minister Rishi Sunak as home secretary over comments she made last week about the police’s handling of a pro-Palestine march.

Braverman has been accused of stoking tensions after the controversial article published in The Times ahead of pro-Palestine protests in London over the weekend. Under fire from opposition lawmakers and members of his own governing Conservative Party to eject Braverman, Sunak moved against his minister, asking her “to leave government”.

The decision followed a major Cabinet reshuffle by Sunak. James Cleverly has been confirmed as the home secretary. He was earlier foreign secretary and his place will be taken by former British PM David Cameron.

This is the second time Braverman has been asked to step down from the same job in 13 months. In October last year, then UK PM Liz Truss ordered her to resign for sending confidential information to an MP from a private email address.

According to PA Media, Braverman said, “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary … I will have more to say in due course.”

We take a look at what led to the firing and what has happened since.

What did Braverman say in The Times article?

In a piece published in The Times on 8 November, Braverman accused the London police of bias in how they deal with political protests. She claimed that London’s Metropolitan Police force was ignoring lawbreaking by “pro-Palestinian mobs”. She also added fuel to the fire by calling demonstrators demanding a ceasefire in Gaza “hate marchers.”

“I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza,” Braverman wrote.

She accused the police of acting more leniently toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than to right-wing protesters or soccer hooligans. “There is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters,” 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,” she wrote.

“They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups – particularly Islamists – of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland. Also disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster are the reports that some of Saturday’s march group organisers have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas,” Braverman claimed.

Why did Rishi Sunak sack Braverman?

Pro-Palestinian protests have been held in London and other British cities every weekend since the Israel-Hamas war began on 7 October. The march, which was organised on Saturday, was criticised by the government because it fell on Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War I, a day many in Britain remember victims of the war.

Earlier Sunak too had criticised the protests on the Remembrance Day weekend as “provocative and disrespectful”. However, he softened his stance last Wednesday after talks with London police chief Mark Rowley. The PM said that the government has backed “the right to peacefully protest”.

But the controversy snowballed after Braverman’s article in The Times. Reports say that the piece was not agreed upon by 10 Downing, which was a breach of the ministerial code.

“The content was not agreed by No 10,” the spokesperson for the prime minister said last Thursday. “We are looking into what happened in this instance around the op-ed. We will update if appropriate.”

The ministerial code states that the policy content and timing of all major press releases, interviews and appearances should be cleared by No 10 “to ensure the effective coordination of Cabinet business”. It is understood the article was sent to Downing Street but that major changes that had been sought were not made, according to a report in The Guardian.

Braverman has been a controversial figure but The Times article was the last straw. The dismal comes after weeks of controversy as she seemed to be following her own hard-right policy agenda making several contentious comments including a much-criticised description of homelessness as a “lifestyle choice”, the report says.

Asked if Sunak agreed with Braverman about the police, the spokesperson said, “The prime minister continues to believe the police will operate without fear or favour.”

Before Monday’s sacking, there was growing despair coming among centrist Conservative MPs over the delay in the decision. “Every day she remains in office it further undermines the prime minister’s authority,” an MP was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

Braverman was also accused of fuelling far-right violence after at least 92 people opposing a pro-Palestine rally in central London were arrested on Armistice Day. Several clashes broke out between a large group of far-right supporters and the police.

How have politicians reacted to the sacking?

Braverman’s sacking has been welcomed by rivals.

Ed Davey, a Liberal Democrat leader, said, “Suella Braverman was never fit to be Home Secretary. Rishi Sunak knew this and he still appointed her. It was the prime minister’s sheer cowardice that kept her in the job even for this long. We are witnessing a broken party and a broken government, both of which are breaking this country.”

Jess Phllips, the shadow minister for domestic violence, wrote on X, “Braverman was worst Home Secretary in living memory. Putting aside obvious ghoulish divisions, she simply didn’t understand her job, she didn’t do anything to show even a jot of priority to domestic &sexual abuse, she made modern slavery easier for slavers and harmed policing.”

Braverman was worst Home Secretary in living memory. Putting aside obvious ghoulish divisions, she simply didn’t understand her job, she didn’t do anything to show even a jot of priority to domestic &sexual abuse, she made modern slavery easier for slavers and harmed policing.

— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) November 13, 2023

Conservative Party MP Marcus Fysh, who is said to be Braverman’s friend, said he was sad to see her go. He told BBC Radio Somerset, “She’s sometimes opened herself up to criticism by means of the words she’s used – she’s always needed to work on that really – so I can understand, in a way, that’s becoming a distraction.”

What happens next?

There has been a big Cabinet reshuffle. James Cleverly visited Downing Street on Monday morning and was then announced as a replacement for Braverman.

Former PM James Cameron has returned to the government as foreign secretary. He has been out of Parliament since he quit as prime minister in 2016.

"While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience - as Conservative Leader for eleven years and Prime Minister for six - will assist me in helping the prime minister,” Cameron said. He added that, though he may have “disagreed with some individual decisions” made by Sunak, the PM is a “strong and capable” leader.

James Cleverly said in this first statement since taking up the new role, It is an honour to be appointed as home secretary. The goal is clear. My job is to keep people in this country safe."

Braverman is gone and the return of Cameron is a big change. Sunak can hope that it can brighten the prospects of the Conservative Party.

With inputs from agencies