Suella Braverman hints at leadership ambitions with unusually personal pitch to Tory right

Given Suella Braverman is a senior government minister, her speech at the National Conservatism conference was heavy on the Suella stuff and light on the government stuff.

After being interrupted by two protesters (“write a letter” came the shout from the crowd), the home secretary opened with a lengthy explanation of her own backstory and how her family initially came to the UK.

“55 years ago, on a cold February morning in 1968, an Asian man, not yet 21, stepped off a plane at London Heathrow. There was no family to meet him, nor any friends. He had nothing to his name,” the home secretary said.

Affecting and stirring, yes – but in the grammar of political speeches, passages like this are more associated with Tory leadership contenders than sitting cabinet ministers.

What followed was an at times deeply philosophical and personal analysis of the conservative cause.

Soundbites were well-written, well-prepared and well-targeted to the right-wing audience in the hall and in her party.

“Those of us advancing unfashionable facts are beaten over the head with fashionable fictions,” she said – before giving the example of the “ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators” and “the fact that 100% of women do not have a penis”.

There were references to William F Buckley, Michael Oakeshott and Irving Kristol – doyens of the conservative intellectual movement.

The “mutilation” of our children by “radical gender ideology” was railed against and the virtues of the family unit praised.

One of the few references to government policy came in the home secretary’s well-publicised comments about levels of legal migration.

But even here, this felt like a campaigning call to influence the position of ministers, rather than remarks from the person who literally has control over the policy.

On this, the practical and political backdrop matters.

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Legal migration is running at record levels, with data due later this month that may show up to one million more people arriving in the country compared to those leaving.

While the Cameron-era promise of getting numbers down to the tens of thousands has been scrapped, the government is still committed to reducing overall levels.

But there’s something of a push and pull in the cabinet over how to do that.

Plans to put limits on the number of family members overseas students can bring with them ran into resistance from the education secretary and chancellor over concerns that it may put off the brightest and best from coming to the country.

Economic issues loom large as well, with businesses depending on overseas labour to fill vacancy gaps.

In this context, the home secretary’s remarks can be seen as a not-so-subtle flexing of her own political muscle on an issue that has the potential to damage her and the government.

But something else could be going on as well.

It was only a few days ago that another gathering of right-wing conservatives took place in Bournemouth, with the aim of discussing the way forward for the Tory party.

The result of the next general election is still anything but certain.

But if Rishi Sunak is to lose, it seems clear that those behind these conferences will want their vision to figure heavily in the debate about the party’s future.

After Suella Braverman’s speech, it’s not hard to see who many in this movement would want as their figurehead.