Suella Braverman has left her position of Britain’s home secretary after less than six weeks in the job.
Braverman, a prominent Brexiteer and skeptic of the European Convention on Human Rights, was allegedly relieved of her duties “after mishandling secret documents on a personal phone,” according to Bloomberg reporter Alex Wickham, who cited “multiple sources with direct knowledge” of the circumstances surrounding her departure.
She becomes the second holder of one of Britain’s great offices of state under Prime Minister Liz Truss’ fledgling government to leave her job within the last week after former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, was sacked on Friday evening and replaced by Remainer Jeremy Hunt.
British conservatives have suggested that something else may be afoot with Nigel Farage tweeting: “The Hunt reshuffle is on. Suella Braverman looks to be out. According to reports, she will be replaced by Grant Shapps,” who the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader describes as a “Remainer and Globalist.”
“This is a coup, the Conservative party is dead,” Farage added.
There have been numerous suggestions over the past turbulent week in British politics that Jeremy Hunt is now pulling the strings in government. Having overturned almost all of Liz Truss’ low-tax economic plan announced just one month ago earlier this week, many began to conclude that Truss may be in office, but is certainly not in power.
A brief, albeit minor counterattack at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday proved to be a false dawn, and Braverman’s departure is likely to anger huge swathes of the Conservative parliamentary party.
Reporter for The Sun newspaper, Noa Hoffman, tweeted following the announcement that Braverman “was due to make a major announcement about slashing student visa numbers tomorrow.”
In her letter to the prime minister, Braverman explained that “it is with the greatest regret that I am choosing to tender my resignation.”
She admitted to sending an “official document” from her personal email to a “trusted parliamentary colleague” earlier on Wednesday, which she accepted “constitutes a technical infringement of the rules.”
Further down in her statement to Liz Truss, Braverman expressed her “concerns about the direction of this government.
“Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this Government’s commitment to honoring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boat crossings.”
Braverman added that while it had been a “great honor” to serve at the Home Office, “it has been very clear that there is much to do in terms of delivering on the priorities of the British people.
“They deserve policing they can respect, an immigration policy they want and voted for in such unambiguous numbers at the last election, and laws which serve the public good, and not the interests of selfish protestors,” she added.
