Braverman’s immigration speech disrupted by protesters after Rees-Mogg interrupted on stage

Suella Braverman was heckled by protesters as she delivered a speech on reducing net migration at the National Conservatism conference.

Hours after an address by Tory heavyweight Jacob Rees-Mogg was interrupted by a stage invader, security had to eject two more people from the room.

Climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) have claimed responsibility for the disruption, calling the activists “ordinary people speaking out against fascism”.

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National Conservatism is a global, right-wing movement which claims that traditional values are being “undermined and overthrown”.

The home secretary had barely begun speaking when a man stood up and started shouting about her small boats plan.

Moments later a woman stood up and started asking questions to boos from the audience.

The pair were swiftly hauled out of the room with Ms Braverman joking: “Anyone else? It’s audition day for the shadow cabinet.”

Mr Rees-Mogg also made light of the situation after a man joined him at the lectern during his speech and told the audience: “I would like to draw your attention to a few characteristics of fascism.”

The former business secretary said Conservatives believed in freedom of speech and that the activist “can have his national loony convention next week and see how many people show up”.

Shortly afterwards, Extinction Rebellion posted on Twitter: “XR disrupts the National Conservatism Conference, calling out the fascist ideologies of senior Cabinet members and MPs.”

‘Not racist to control our borders’

Ms Braverman used her speech to say the Conservative party needs to deliver on its manifesto promise to reduce immigration, arguing “it’s not racist” to want control of our borders.

“There is no reason why we can’t train up enough truck drivers, butchers, fruit pickers or welders,” the home secretary said.

“Brexit enables us to build a high skilled, high wage economy which is less dependent on low skill foreign labour.

“That was our 2019 manifesto pledge – and it’s what we must deliver.”

The speech will be seen as a warning to cabinet colleagues against relaxing immigration visa rules in a bid to boost growth.

There has been speculation of a split in government on immigration, with some members – including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt – more keen than others to stress the benefits of migration for the economy.

The Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promised “fewer lower-skilled migrants” and that “overall (migrant) numbers will come down”.

But when the latest net migration figures come out next week, it’s suggested by researchers it could reach 700,000 or even a million at the highest.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, suggested Ms Braverman was “auditioning” for the Tory leadership and distancing herself from the policies for which she is responsible.

Referencing a cropped photo which reduces the National Conservatism logo to “national con”, the Labour frontbencher tweeted: “Yep – that’s exactly what all this is. Suella Braverman criticising Govt immigration policies – wait til she finds out who’s in charge of them!”

Voter ID attempt at ‘gerrymandering’, Rees-Mogg suggests

Earlier, Mr Rees-Mogg used his speech to criticise prime minister Rishi Sunak for breaking his promise to complete a “bonfire” of remaining EU-era laws by the end of the year.

Fewer than 600 laws will be revoked under the bill by the end of the year instead of the 4,000 or so pledged – in a move the North East Somerset MP called “pathetically under-ambitious”.

“Rishi Sunak made a specific promise to scrap thousands of EU laws,” he said.

“He’s broken that promise. This is very unfortunate as one of his virtues is his trustworthiness and the surrender to the blob risks exposing the government to ridicule.”

The senior Tory MP also appeared to describe the introduction of voter ID as an attempt at “gerrymandering” that backfired against the Conservatives.

He said the policy, which he defended when a government minister, had made it harder for elderly Tories to vote.

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“Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections,” he said.

“We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.”

National Conservatism is a fringe event which has brought together supporters and representatives on the right of the Conservative party.

Tory MP Miriam Cates opened the three-day conference in London on Monday, saying that falling birth rates are “the one overarching threat to British conservatism and indeed the whole of western society”.

She also claimed “cultural Marxism” was “destroying our children’s souls” – something which has been criticised by the government’s antisemitism tsar.

John Mann, a former Labour MP who now serves as the government’s adviser on antisemitism, said: “The use of the term is rooted in Goebbels’ cultural Bolshevism and is a conspiracy theory with antisemitism at its core.

“No UK politician should be comfortable in using it and needs to understand where it comes from and why that is problematic.”