Suella Braverman back as home secretary after resigning

6 hours ago

Suella Braverman has returned to the role of home secretary only six days after she dramatically resigned.

Ms Braverman was forced to step down on what became the final chaotic day of Liz Truss’ premiership, after admitting two data breaches.

In her resignation letter, she said she had emailed cabinet papers from a private account, but also attacked Ms Truss’s approach to immigration.

Rishi Sunak re-appointed Ms Braverman on his first day in office.

The roles of Chancellor, home secretary and foreign secretary are now held by the same people they were seven days ago.

Jeremy Hunt was appointed Chancellor two weeks ago by Ms Truss and reversed much of her tax-cutting mini-budget. James Cleverly, made foreign secretary by Ms Truss, will also remain in post.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper accused Mr Sunak of “putting party before country” in appointing Ms Braverman.

Ms Braverman threw her support behind Mr Sunak in the contest to replace Ms Truss, in what was widely seen as a significant endorsement by an MP on the right-wing of the Tory party.

“He said he wants his government to have ‘integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level’,” Ms Cooper said.

“Yet he has just appointed Suella Braverman to be home secretary again a week after she resigned for breaches of the Ministerial Code, security lapses, sending sensitive government information through unauthorised personal channels, and following weeks of non-stop public disagreements with other cabinet ministers.

“Our national security and public safety are too important for this kind of chaos.”

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Video caption,

Ms Braverman quit on a chaotic day in parliament

Ms Braverman had been appointed as Attorney General by Boris Johnson in 2020, before becoming Ms Truss’s first home secretary.

In her resignation letter last week, Ms Braverman said she had made a “technical infringement” of the rules by sending an official document from a personal email and was now taking responsibility.

“I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign,” she told the PM in her letter, in a thinly-veiled dig at Ms Truss.

However, she also said she had “serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.”

There have been reports that Ms Braverman had been at odds with Ms Truss over plans to relax immigration rules in a bid to boost economic growth.

She was replaced by Grant Shapps, who served in office for only six days.