A veteran cabinet minister has refused to say whether Suella Braverman will still be home secretary in a week’s time.
Asked about Ms Bravermanon Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said that a “week is a long time in politics” – and that he would not be making any predictions.
The make-up of the cabinet is “entirely a matter for the prime minister”, he added.
This lack of an endorsement followed calls from Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper for Rishi Sunak to sack the home secretary.
The controversy comes following yesterday’s unrest in London, when pro-Palestine protesters marched through London – as did counter-protesters.
There were dozens of arrests on both sides, and more are expected.
Ms Braverman has been accused of heightening tensions with an article she authored last week in The Times, which accused the Metropolitan Police of having double-standards on how it polices different protests based on political affiliation.
Downing Street is currently investigating how the article was published without edits they had wanted to be made.
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There will be increasing pressure on Ms Braverman this week in the run-up to Wednesday, when a judgment is expected on the legality of the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme.
Asked about Ms Braverman’s future, Mr Shapps highlighted that he wanted to spend this weekend paying tribute to people “who have bravely given their lives”.
He seemed to play down the suggested impact she had on encouraging people to demonstrate – saying: “Those people who were going to come and try and disrupt this weekend had already said they were going to do it.
“They were doing it in their own twisted way because they were protesting themselves against other marches.”
Guto Harri, who was director of communications in Downing Street under Boris Johnson, pointed out that “no cabinet colleague has come out and said she was making a valid point” on policing.
“So I think she is in trouble in that sense. And a week is a long time in politics,” he added.
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2:26
‘The govt made it harder for police’
Speaking earlier in the programme, Ms Cooper said Ms Braverman’s position as home secretary “is a matter for Rishi Sunak – I think he needs to deal with this”.
She added: “I think he appointed her, and he needs to do something about it, because otherwise all that he shows is he is weak, he doesn’t care about policing, and he doesn’t care about the security of our country.”
Ms Cooper pointed out in her interview that Mr Sunak – in a statement released last night – did not thank the police for their work on Saturday.
“I was just shocked that there wasn’t a word of thanks for the police in the statement,” she said.
“We saw police under attack having missiles thrown at them and having to deal with people who were trying to climb over fences, climbing onto walls to try and get to the cenotaph.
“The police made sure that they didn’t – and we should thank them for that.”
When this was put to Mr Shapps, he said that “of course the prime minister is grateful to the police” – adding that it “goes almost without saying”.
Zack Polanski and Nigel Farage might be polar opposites when it comes to politics – but they do have one thing in common.
The pair are both cutting through in a changing media landscape when attention is scarce and trust in mainstream politics is scarcer still.
For Farage, the Reform UK leader, momentum has been building since he won a seat at the general election last year and he continues to top the polls.
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2:47
Badenoch doesn’t want to talk about Farage
But in the six weeks since Polanski became leader of the Greens, membership has doubled, they’ve polled higher than ever before while three Labour councillors have defected. Has the insurgent firebrand finally met his match?
“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and disagree with him on almost everything,” Polanski tells Sky News.
“But I think his storytelling has undoubtedly cut through and so yes there has been a huge part of us saying ‘If Farage can do that with a politics of hate and division, then it’s time for the Green Party to do that with a politics of hope and community’ and that’s absolutely what I intend to keep doing.”
Polanski was speaking after a news conference to announce the defections of the councillors in Swindon – a bellwether area that is currently led by a Labour council and has two Labour MPs, but was previously controlled by the Tories.
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It is the sort of story the party would previously have announced in a press release, but the self-described “eco populist” is determined to do things differently to grab attention.
He has done media interviews daily over the past few weeks, launched his own podcast and turbocharged the Greens social media content – producing slick viral videos such as his visit to Handsworth (the Birmingham neighbourhood where Robert Jenrick claimed he saw no white people).
Image: Zack Polanski announces the defection of Labour councillors
Polanski insists that it is not increased exposure in and of itself that is attracting people to his party but his messaging – he wants to “make hope normal again”.
“I’m not going to be in a wetsuit or be parachuting from a helicopter”, he says in a swipe at Lib Dem leader Ed Davey.
“I think you only need to do stunts if you don’t have something really clear to say and then you need to grab attention.
“I think when you look at the challenges facing this country right now if you talk about taxing wealth and not work, if you talk about the mass inequality in our society and you talk about your solidarity with people living in poverty, with working-class communities, I think these are the things that people both want to hear, but also they want to know our solutions. The good news is I’ve got loads of solutions and the party has loads of solutions. “
Some of those solutions have come under criticism – Reform UK have attacked his policy to legalise drugs and abolish private landlords.
Image: Discontent is fuelling the rise of challenger parties. Pic: PA
Polanski is confident he can win the fight. He says it helps that he talks “quite quickly because it means that I’m able to be bold but also have nuance”. And he is a London Assembly member not an MP, so he has time to be the party’s cheerleader rather than being bogged down with case work.
As for what’s next, the 42-year-old has alluded to conversations with Labour MPs about defections. He has not revealed who they are but today gave an idea of who he would welcome – naming Starmer critic Richard Burgon.
Like Burgon, Polanski believes Starmer “will be gone by May” and that the local elections for Labour “will be disastrous”.
He wants to replace Labour “right across England and Wales” when voters go to the polls, something Reform UK has also vowed to do.
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2:26
Is Zack Polanski squeezing the Labour vote?
Could the Greens be kingmakers?
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common, says this reflects a “new axis of competition” as frontline British politics shifts from a battle of left vs right to a battle of process vs anti-establishment.
Farage has been the beneficiary of this battle so far but Tryl says Polanski is “coming up in focus groups” in a way his predecessors didn’t. “He is cutting through”, the pollster says.
However, one big challenge Polanski faces is whether his rise will cause the left vote to fragment and make it easier for Farage to win – something he has said he wants to avoid at all costs.
And yet, asked if he would form a coalition with Labour to keep Farage out of power in the event of a hung parliament, he suggested he would only do so if Sir Keir Starmer is no longer prime minister.
“I have issues with Keir Starmer as prime minister,” he says. “I think he had the trust of the public, but I would say that’s been broken over and over again. If we had a different Labour prime minister that would be a different conversation about where their values are.
He adds: “I do think stopping Nigel Farage has to be a huge mission for any progressive in this country, but the biggest way we can stop Nigel Farage is by people joining the Green Party right now; creating a real alternative to this Labour government, where we say we don’t have to compromise on our values.
“If people wanted to vote for Nigel Farage, they’d vote for Nigel Farage. What does Keir Starmer think he’s doing by offering politics that are similar but watered down? That’s not going to appeal to anyone, and I think that’s why they’re sinking in the polls.”
The STREAMLINE Act would update anti–money laundering rules by lifting decades-old thresholds for transaction reporting, cutting red tape for banks and crypto companies.