Suella Braverman: Chancellor distances himself from home secretary’s criticism of Met Police’s stance on pro-Palestinian demonstrations

Published

2 years ago

November 10, 2023

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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has distanced himself from Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s criticism of the Metropolitan Police.

Speaking this morning, Mr Hunt said: “The words that she used are not words that I myself would have used.”

In her article in The Times published on Wednesday, Ms Braverman likened pro-Palestinian demonstrations to marches seen in Northern Ireland, and accused the Met of holding “double standards” and being more lenient to left-wing protests.

Yesterday morning, Downing Street claimed it had full confidence in the home secretary – although she has come under considerable criticism from within her party since.

Politics latest: PM under pressure to sack Braverman over Met criticism

Mr Hunt said he had always given money to the home secretary to fund the police, and said the prime minister still had confidence in her.

One senior minister told Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby that “we can’t continue like this”.

They added that Downing Street might be waiting until the judgement on the legality of the Rwanda scheme which is set to be handed down on Wednesday next week.

The minister told Beth the relationship with the police is “very damaged” and “credibility generally is low. Delay makes the government look weak, unfortunately”.

Education minister Robert Halfon was asked repeatedly this morning if Rishi Sunak had confidence in his home secretary by Sky News, but was unable to answer.

Instead, he said it was the prime minister’s focus to ensure “remembrance services go ahead peacefully”.

On three occasions, he refused to confirm if Mr Sunak backed his home secretary.

Asked about the article published in The Times on Wednesday evening – which Downing Street did not clear – Mr Halfon said there was an internal investigation into how it made it into print without sign-off from the prime minister’s team.

Mr Sunak had wanted the marches called off, but following a meeting on Wednesday with Sir Mark Rowley agreed they could go ahead.

If the Met feels it cannot staff the demonstrations properly, it can apply to the home secretary who can then ban them from taking place.

Some parts of the Conservative Party are being very vocal in their support of Ms Braverman, including Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson.

He appeared to join in her criticism of the Met, posting on social media that the home secretary had not “took the knee on Whitehall while BLM riot”.

Mr Anderson added that it was Labour MPs who “want her sacked” that did this, but the Met also came under considerable criticism at the time for kneeling during Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Darren Jones, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, told Sky News that Ms Braverman was “weaponising” the issue for her “own personal ambitions”.

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Responding to Mr Anderson’s tweet, Mr Jones said the Conservative Party spokesman was claiming the public would be happy for politicians to decide on an ideological basis “what issue can be protested and what issue can’t be protested”.

“I’m sorry, that’s not the way that our democracy works,” he added.

Mr Jones said the demonstrations should go ahead, but should “not disrupt” remembrance services.

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Heidi Alexander says ‘fairness’ will be government’s ‘guiding principle’ when it comes to taxes at next budget

Published

14 hours ago

July 13, 2025

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Heidi Alexander says 'fairness' will be government's 'guiding principle' when it comes to taxes at next budget

Another hint that tax rises are coming in this autumn’s budget has been given by a senior minister.

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government’s failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs.

Trevor Phillips asked specifically if tax rises were discussed among the cabinet last week – including on an away day on Friday.

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Tax increases were not discussed “directly”, Ms Alexander said, but ministers were “cognisant” of the challenges facing them.

Asked what this means, Ms Alexander added: “I think your viewers would be surprised if we didn’t recognise that at the budget, the chancellor will need to look at the OBR forecast that is given to her and will make decisions in line with the fiscal rules that she has set out.

“We made a commitment in our manifesto not to be putting up taxes on people on modest incomes, working people. We have stuck to that.”

Ms Alexander said she wouldn’t comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: “So, the chancellor will set her budget. I’m not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.

“When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle.”

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Afterwards, shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Phillips: “That sounds to me like a barely disguised reference to tax rises coming in the autumn.”

He then went on to repeat the Conservative attack lines that Labour are “crashing the economy”.

Mr Philp then attacked the prime minister as “weak” for being unable to get his welfare reforms through the Commons.

Discussions about potential tax rises have come to the fore after the government had to gut its welfare reforms.

Sir Keir had wanted to change Personal Independence Payments (PIP), but a large Labour rebellion forced him to axe the changes.

With the savings from these proposed changes – around £5bn – already worked into the government’s sums, they will now need to find the money somewhere else.

The general belief is that this will take the form of tax rises, rather than spending cuts, with more money needed for military spending commitments, as well as other areas of priority for the government, such as the NHS.