Braverman quits as UK home secretary with parting shot at embattled PM

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LONDON: Indian-origin British MP Suella Braverman – whose off-the-cuff remarks on migrants from India caused widespread condemnation in India and nearly sank the UK-India trade deal – has left her role as home secretary in the Truss government in less than two months in the role.
Braverman, former attorney-general, either resigned or was sacked on Wednesday late afternoon after breaching the ministerial code by sending an email from her personal email address. This comes after the former chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, was sacked by PM Liz Truss last Friday. Truss has now lost two occupants of the four great offices of state in six days, with many suggesting this exposes her poor judgment. There has been criticism that Truss did not appoint anyone who backed her former leadership rival, Indian-origin ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak, in her Cabinet after she became PM. That now looks set to change
Grant Shapps, a backer of Sunak, who was transport secretary during Boris Johnson‘s government, has become the new home secretary. With Jeremy Hunt replacing Kwarteng as chancellor, the four great offices of state being without a white man is also no longer the case. Braverman, MP for Fareham, said in her resignation letter that she had sent a draft ministerial statement regarding the government policy on migration, from her personal email, which she said was due for imminent publication but she accepted was “a technical infringement of the rules”. “As home secretary I hold myself to the highest standards and my resignation is the right thing to do,” she wrote.
Braverman also wrote she has “concerns about the direction of the government” and to it honouring its manifesto commitments, “such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous boat crossings”. Truss responded in writing accepting her resignation, saying it was important the code was upheld and thanking her for her service.
There was scepticism as to whether she had resigned, with many claiming she was sacked owing to wider policy disagreements between the home secretary and the UK PM, particularly over migration, with Truss wanting to increase migration and have a liberal visa regime as part of her pro-growth strategy, and Braverman, who comes from the right of the party, wanting to clamp down on migration.
Insiders told TOI they did not expect this to lead to a cascade of Cabinet resignations, which triggered Johnson’s downfall, but that there would be a Cabinet reshuffle with more of Sunak’s backers being appointed to bring unity to the Cabinet instead of it just being filled with Truss’s backers.
Braverman attended a Diwali event organised by India Global Forum on Tuesday and tweeted: “Building closer India-UK trade and security partnerships is of huge value to both our nations”.



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