Suella Braverman: Robert Halfon repeatedly refuses to say if Rishi Sunak still backs home secretary
An education minister has refused to say whether prime minister has confidence in Home Secretary Suella Braverman following her controversial comments about the Metropolitan Police’s staffing of Armistice Day.
Robert Halfon was asked repeatedly 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”.
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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.
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.
In her article in The Times, Ms Braverman likened pro-Palestine demonstrations to marches seen in Northern Ireland, and accused the Met of holding “double standards” and being more lenient to left-wing protests.
Mr Halfon’s first response to being asked if Mr Sunak had confidence in Ms Braverman was to say: “Look, the prime minister’s focus is ensuring that the remembrance services go ahead peacefully.
“That’s why he’s met with the Metropolitan Police commissioner… Mark Rowley has assured the prime minister that the protests will be peaceful, that the remembrance services will go ahead safely and securely, and that has to be the priority.”
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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.
He said: “Suella is guilty.
“Guilty of saying what most of us are thinking and saying. Thank goodness we have a home secretary who refuses to be cancelled.
“She is using everyday language used by everyday people. Labour MPs would know this if they got out more.”
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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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer ‘very sensible’ to accept football tickets worth thousands
Lisa Nandy has said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to accept thousands of pounds worth of football tickets was “very sensible”.
The minister for culture, media and sport also said she had never accepted free clothes from a donor.
Speaking to Sky News at the start of the Labour Party conference today, the MP for Wigan said: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people and it would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.
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“So I think he’s taken a very sensible decision that’s not the right and appropriate thing to do, and it’s right to accept that he has to go and sit in a different area.
“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”
Ms Nandy also said while she has not accepted free clothes – joking “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes sadly” – she doesn’t “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do”.
She said: “The only judgement I would make is if they’re breaking the rules, so they’re trying to hide what they’re doing. That’s when problems arise.
“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”
She asserted there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by senior Labour figures, adding: “We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.
“We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.
“MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”
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She added: “I don’t think there’s any suggestion here that Keir Starmer has broken any rules. I don’t think there’s any suggestion that he’s done anything wrong.
“We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.
“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”
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Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves said yesterday they will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes.
The announcement followed criticism of Sir Keir’s gifts from donors, which included clothing worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485, according to the MPs’ register of interests.
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The register shows Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations to the value of £2,230.
Sky News also revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.
Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP – his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.
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