Suella Braverman: Suffocating pressures for the resignation of the British Minister. Internal due to immigration and blunder

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Suella Braverman had admitted that she had sent sensitive immigration policy documents, which fall under her portfolio, from her personal rather than her official email, as she was supposed to.

London, Thanasis Gavos

As the first headache for the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak described by political commentators in London the difficult position in which the Home Secretary has fallen Suella Braverman, facing calls for resignation.

The spokeswoman for the right wing of the Conservative Party, who caused a surprise when she backed Mr Sunak over Boris Johnson in the race to succeed Liz Truss, has been appointed by the new prime minister to the Home Office. Six days earlier, the 42-year-old politician had resigned from the same post (during the Tras government) due to a violation of the ministerial code.

Ms. Braverman had admitted that she had send sensitive documents on immigration policy, which falls under her portfolio, from her personal and not her official email, as it should have been.

Her re-appointment by Mr Sunak was therefore criticized by the opposition. That criticism has intensified after Ms Braverman admitted on Monday that on six other occasions she had sent sensitive documents from her work email address to her personal email address – for easier access, she claimed in a letter to the
parliamentary committee.

Criticism of her, however, has intensified over the past two days due to the situation at the refugee and migrant reception center in Manston, Kent, SE England.

The living conditions in the facilities were criticized by the Inspector of Prisons, as while the capacity is below 2,000 people, at the moment the number of people forced to live there is more than double that.

The facilities are not expected to host people for more than two days, however, according to sources cited by British media, Ms. Braverman ordered a month and a half ago to freeze the transfer of these people to hotels in the area. The result is families with children living in tents for many weeks.

The minister even allegedly ignored a relevant warning from the government’s legal advisers that this decision was “outside the law”.

Defending herself at an emergency sitting in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Braverman insisted she had never banned asylum seekers from being taken to hotels, nor had she ever ignored legal advice.

The minister sparked further backlash by choosing to use the word “invasion” in reference to the arrival on British shores of more than 38,000 refugees and irregular migrants by boat across the English Channel since the start of the year.

It caused embarrassment in opposition MPs’ benches when he said the immigration system was “broken” and that illegal immigration was “out of control”, as
appeared to criticize her also Conservative predecessors.

To MPs’ calls for resignation, Ms. Braverman responded with the phrase “let them try.”

However, reactions were also caused within the ruling party, with Sir Roger Gale warning that the minister’s “inflammatory” language hides dangers, as it can be exploited by extremists.

Two former Conservative Home Secretaries told The Times on condition of anonymity that Ms Braverman’s attitude showed how “reckless, ruthless and disingenuous” she was. And the BBC’s political editor-in-chief reported that Conservative Party officials are now questioning the minister’s ability to carry out her duties.
Even the current Undersecretary of the Interior, Robert Jenrick, appeared on Tuesday morning to distance himself from his political superior, saying that he himself would not use language that “demonizes” people.

Over the weekend, however, Downing Street made it clear that the prime minister has complete confidence in his minister.

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