Suella Braverman has been forced to resign as UK home secretary, throwing Liz Truss’s premiership into further chaos and angering the Tory right.
The Guardian was first to reveal that Braverman was departing, with Grant Shapps, the former transport secretary who strongly backed Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership race, set to replace her.
The departed home secretary admitted that she had sent an official document – a draft written statement on migration that was due for imminent publication – from her personal email to a fellow MP as part of policy engagement, which is against the rules.
However, her departure is a further serious blow to Truss’s authority, coming as a growing number of Tory MPs threatened to rebel in a fracking vote tabled by Labour even though they could lose the Tory whip, after the government made it a confidence issue.
In a brutal resignation letter, which contrasted her actions with those of Truss, Braverman wrote: “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.
“It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time. I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments.”
Truss, still reeling from the massive blow to her authority dealt by Kwasi Karteng’s sacking as chancellor and his replacement Jeremy Hunt subsequently ripping up her economic strategy, had cleared her diary and called off a planned visit amid desperate attempts to shore up her premiership, before speaking to Braverman at a meeting in the House of Commons, sources said.
Downing Street sources claimed the move was at the behest of Hunt, who has taken over control of the government’s economic response following Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, but who they claimed was now “pulling the strings”.
Braverman was an outspoken critic of Truss’s U-turn on the top rate of tax, suggesting she thought the prime minister had fallen victim to a “coup” earlier this month.
Some Tory MPs on the libertarian right of the party have been left dismayed by the prime minister’s subsequent moves to ditch other tax cuts.
Braverman’s departure comes after the Home Office passed a major piece of legislation – the Public Order Act. An ally who spoke to her earlier this week said she had been “upbeat”.
Replacing Braverman with Shapps, less than a week after sacking Kwarteng as chancellor, would be another sign of Truss trying to both appeal to a broader section of the Conservative party, and replacing perceived ideologues with more experienced ministers.
The home secretary, who was given the job when Truss entered No 10 in early September, was seen as a backbench and party member-pleasing choice for the role, given her robust views on immigration, law and order and culture war issues.
However, the former attorney general has been at the centre of several immediate controversies since taking over, including speaking out against a proposed trade deal with India due to her worries about it increasing immigration to the UK.
Braverman has also pledged to reduce net migration to the UK to tens of thousands a year, a target promised before and generally found to be impossible to achieve.
On Tuesday, the home secretary used a debate on environmental protests to blame a “coalition of chaos” including opposition parties and the “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati” for supporting groups such as Just Stop Oil.
There was also speculation that the prime minister had pulled out of a trip before Wednesday night’s Commons vote on fracking, which Tory whips have claimed is a confidence issue, amid fears she could lose.
Braverman has also sought to limit the number of international student visas, a lucrative income source for UK universities, while No 10 swiftly hosed down her suggestion than cannabis could be made a class A drug.
With a tenure of 43 days, Braverman is the shortest-serving home secretary since the Duke of Wellington lasted just a month in November and December 1834.
Her only modern rival on brevity in the role was Donald Somervell, who spent two months in the job in 1945 as part of Winston Churchill’s end-of-war caretaker government.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “This Tory government is falling apart at the seams. To appoint and then sack both your home secretary and chancellor within six weeks is utter chaos. This is no way to run a government.
“Suella Braverman has admitted breaching security procedures which raises serious questions. There are also reports of major disputes about policy and we have had weeks of disagreements. We need an urgent statement from the prime minister. Home affairs, security and public safety are too important for this kind of chaos.
“The problems go beyond one home secretary. If the Conservatives can’t even manage the basics they need to get out of the way and hand over to people who can.“
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