Suella Braverman accuses Rishi Sunak of ‘repeatedly failing to deliver’ in scathing letter

Published

1 year ago

November 14, 2023

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Suella Braverman has accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of having “manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver” on key policies in a scathing letter after being sacked as home secretary.

In an explosive attack, she said she only accepted the job in September last year because she was given “firm assurances” he would prioritise migration, Brexit and gender issues.

However she said: “You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies.

“Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises.”

Politics Live: Braverman launches scathing attack on Sunak – in letter that ‘signals’ her plan now

Ms Braverman was sacked as home secretary during the prime minister’s reshuffle on Monday and former foreign secretary James Cleverly took her role.

The move has angered some on the Tory right, with David Cameron’s return to the frontbench to fill Mr Cleverly’s old position seen as a pivot to the centre ground.

In the lengthy letter, Ms Braverman took aim at how Mr Sunak came to be prime minister in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s disastrous and short-lived tenure without facing a vote of party members – and indicated she did a deal with the PM to ensure her “pivotal support”.

She said: “Despite you having been rejected by a majority of party members during the summer leadership contest and thus having no personal mandate to be prime minister, I agreed to support you because of the firm assurances you gave me on key policy priorities.”

She said these included reducing overall legal migration, delivering on the Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law Bills, giving statutory guidance to schools that protects biological sex and agreeing on the possible need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to deliver on the Rwanda deportation plan.

However, she claimed that despite sending “numerous letters on the key subjects contained in our agreement”, as well as making requests to discuss them and working up legal and policy advice, “this was often met with equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest”.

She went on: “These are not just pet interests of mine. They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit Referendum.

“Our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged.”

Small boats ‘betrayal’

In particular, Ms Braverman said Mr Sunak had not lived up to his promise to do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings by failing to override human rights concerns about the Rwanda plan.

She said that if Mr Sunak did not agree to leave the ECHR he had to be prepared to “block off” the risk of human rights challenges to measures to curb migrant crossings.

“Your rejection of this path was not merely a betrayal of our agreement, but a betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop the boats,” she said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling on the controversial policy to send refugees to East Africa, Ms Braverman accused the prime minister of “magical thinking – believing that you can will your way through this without upsetting polite opinion” and of failing to prepare a plan B should the justices rule against the government.

Mr Sunak sacked Mrs Braverman over the phone on Monday morning, clearing the way for a high-risk reshuffle aimed at reviving his faltering premiership.

She was purged after writing an unauthorised article in The Times which accused the Met Police of left-wing bias to Pro-Palestine protesters. It was the latest in a series of inflammatory comments that was starting to rile members of her own party, including saying that rough sleeping was a “lifestyle choice”.

Ms Braverman admitted she may “not have always found the right words” but said she has “endeavoured to be honest and true to the people who put us in these privileged positions”.

She also urged Mr Sunak to “change course urgently”, telling him he has led the Conservatives to “record election defeats” and that his “resets have failed and we are running out of time”.

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Rachel Reeves lands in China amid pressure to cancel trip over market turmoil

Published

19 hours ago

January 11, 2025

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Rachel Reeves lands in China amid pressure to cancel trip over market turmoil

Making Britain better off will be “at the forefront of the chancellor’s mind” during her visit to China, the Treasury has said amid controversy over the trip.

Rachel Reeves flew out on Friday after ignoring calls from opposition parties to cancel the long-planned venture because of market turmoil at home.

The past week has seen a drop in the pound and an increase in government borrowing costs, which has fuelled speculation of more spending cuts or tax rises.

The Tories have accused the chancellor of having “fled to China” rather than explain how she will fix the UK’s flatlining economy, while the Liberal Democrats say she should stay in Britain and announce a “plan B” to address market volatility.

However, Ms Reeves has rejected calls to cancel the visit, writing in The Times on Friday night that choosing not to engage with China is “no choice at all”.

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The chancellor will be accompanied by Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and other senior executives.

She will meet with her counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng, in Beijing on Saturday to discuss financial services, trade and investment.

She will also “raise difficult issues”, including Chinese firms supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concerns over constraints on rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, the Treasury said.

But it did not mention whether Ms Reeves would raise the treatment of the Uyghur community, which Downing Street said Foreign Secretary David Lammy would do during his visit last year.

On Friday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy defended the trip, telling Sky News that the climbing cost of government borrowing was a “global trend” that had affected many countries, “most notably the United States”.

“We are still on track to be the fastest growing economy, according to the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] in Europe,” she told Anna Jones on Sky News Breakfast.

“China is the second-largest economy, and what China does has the biggest impact on people from Stockton to Sunderland, right across the UK, and it’s absolutely essential that we have a relationship with them.”

Read more – Ed Conway analysis: The chancellor’s gamble with China

However, former prime minister Boris Johnson said Ms Reeves had “been rumbled” and said she should “make her way to HR and collect her P45 – or stay in China”.

While in the country’s capital, Ms Reeves will also visit British bike brand Brompton’s flagship store, which relies heavily on exports to China, before heading to Shanghai for talks with representatives across British and Chinese businesses.

It is the first UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) since 2019, building on the Labour government’s plan for a “pragmatic” policy with the world’s second-largest economy.

Sir Keir Starmer was the first British prime minister to meet with China’s President Xi Jinping in six years at the G20 summit in Brazil last autumn.

Relations between the UK and China have become strained over the last decade as the Conservative government spoke out against human rights abuses and concerns grew over national security risks.

Navigating this has proved tricky given China is the UK’s fourth largest single trading partner, with a trade relationship worth almost £113bn and exports to China supporting over 455,000 jobs in the UK in 2020, according to the government.

During the Tories’ 14 years in office, the approach varied dramatically from the “golden era” under David Cameron to hawkish aggression under Liz Truss, while Rishi Sunak vowed to be “robust” but resisted pressure from his own party to brand China a threat.

The Treasury said a stable relationship with China would support economic growth and that “making working people across Britain secure and better off is at the forefront of the chancellor’s mind”.

Ahead of her visit, Ms Reeves said: “By finding common ground on trade and investment, while being candid about our differences and upholding national security as the first duty of this government, we can build a long-term economic relationship with China that works in the national interest.”