The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has tendered her resignation from the government this afternoon after what has been reported as an honest mistake to do with the sharing of ‘sensitive data’ on a mobile phone.
Mr Braverman said that she realized her mistake and reported herself to the Cabinet secretary, given that the mistake involved a breach of the ministerial code.
The information shared by Ms Braverman is believed to relate to migration data, potentially that to be used by the Office of Budget Responsibility in its fiscal forecasts for later in the month, and as such it was information which was considered market sensitive.
In her resignation letter, Ms Braverman said, “Early today I sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement. That constitutes a technical infringement of the rules. As you know the document was a draft written ministerial statement about migration, due for publication imminently, much of it had already been briefed to MPs. Nevertheless it is right for me to go”.
Although the Home Secretary’s departure from the government is not related to a lack of cabinet confidence in Liz Truss, or a particular policy dispute, Ms Braverman nevertheless used her resignation letter to express her concern about the direction of travel for the Truss administration.
Leaving a sting in the tail, Ms Braverman questioned the government’s commitment to effectively stopping migrant boat crossings in the English Channel. Unlike Kwarsi Kwarteng, Ms Braverman’s resignation did not contain any statement suggesting that she will give Liz Truss her support from the backbenches. Ms Braverman came fifth in this summer’s conservative party leadership election.
Positioned on the Conservative right, and still politically ambitious for the Conservative leadership in the medium term, Ms Braverman is now likey to become a prominent voice on the Conservative backbenches.
The departure of Ms Braverman explains why the prime minister had earlier cancelled an afternoon trip to visit a defence company. The planned visit, which was only confirmed to journalists by the prime minister’s official spokesman just before 1pm today, was later abruptly aborted without explanation.
Following the appointment of Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor last Friday, Grant Shapps has been appointed to Ms Braverman as Home Secretary. In doing so, Liz Truss is bringing in another prominent rebel into the heart of her government.
The former transport secretary, Grant Shapps, was only dismissed by Liz Truss, just two months ago, being told at the time that there was ‘no room for him at the inn’ given his backing for Rishi Suank in the recent Conservative leadership contest.
The decision to now bring political opponents such as Mr Hunt and Mr Shapps back into the cabinet, is being presented as another U-Turn by Liz Truss.
In any normal time, for any prime minister to lose both her Chancellor and Home Secretary within the space of a week, would constitute a political crisis.
With the government having U-Turned on nearly all its flagship economic policies in the last two weeks, and with the Conservative party being 30% behind in the polls, these events only add further pressures on the prime minister.
This afternoon a sixth Conservative MP, William Wragg, has publicly called for the prime minister to resign.
