Sir John Hayes, chairman on the Common Sense group of right-wing Conservative MPs, has urged the prime minister and Suella Braverman to “collaborate” on stopping the boats, as Rishi Sunak faces pressure to sack his home secretary.
It comes as The Telegraph reports that the Commons Sense Group are preparing to make a direct appeal to Rishi Sunak to urge him to resist pressure on his home secretary.
There has been speculation Sunak will carry out a cabinet reshuffle, with the goal of moving Braverman out of her home secretary post, either before or after the Supreme Court ruling on the Rwanda deportations policy.
The ruling will take place on Wednesday in what will be a pivotal moment in the government’s bid to “stop the boats”.
Speaking to The Telegraph ahead of his group’s letter, Sir John Hayes said: There’s no one better than Suella Braverman to help Rishi Sunak deliver what he has made a defining policy for him and the Government”.
The former minister added: “I am sure they will collaborate to do so”.
Last week, Braverman was said by No 10 to have defied Downing Street by ignoring its requested edits to a newspaper article in The Times.
In the article, she accused the Met of “playing favourites” towards Left-wing protesters
On Sunday, Grant Shapps became the latest Cabinet minister to distance himself from the home secretary.
“As others in cabinet have said, I wouldn’t use that set of words myself”, he told the BBC.
And asked on Sky News if Braverman would still be in her job next weekend, Shapps said that “a week is a long time in politics, and I never make predictions these things.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Times Radio that her opposite number had “inflamed tensions” with her remarks and called for her to be sacked.
“The problem with what Suella Braverman did is she inflamed tensions and she launched this unprecedented attack on the police in the run up to a difficult weekend, and she made their job harder”, she said.
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