Suella Braverman hits back at Sir Elton John criticism of speech – as she brushes off claims she is aiming for Tory leadership
“Many people” pretend to be gay to claim asylum in the UK, Suella Braverman has claimed, as she defended herself from criticism from Sir Elton John.
The home secretary yesterday delivered a controversial speech in which she claimed the asylum system will break if people are given sanctuary for “simply being gay, or a woman, and fearful of discrimination in your country of origin”.
Her words were criticised by Sir Elton John and the Labour MPs Ben Bradshaw and Sir Chris Bryant, who are both gay.
Speaking to ITV News today, Ms Braverman said that “some people do game the system”.
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She said: “They come to the UK, they purport to be homosexual in the effort to game our system, in the effort to get special treatment.
“That’s not fair, and it’s not right.
“I’m afraid we do see many instances where people purport to be gay when they’re not actually gay. But in order to get special treatment, it’s not the way our asylum system should work.”
In a statement released through the Elton John Aids Foundation, the singer and his husband David Furnish said: “We are very concerned about the UK home secretary’s comments stating how discrimination for being gay or a woman should not be reason enough to qualify for protection under international refugee laws.
“Nearly a third of all nations class LGBTQ+ people as criminals, and homosexuality is still punishable by death in 11 countries.
“Dismissing the very real danger LGBTQ+ communities face risks further legitimising hate and violence against them.
“Leaders need to provide more compassion, support and acceptance for those seeking a safer future.”
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Responding, Ms Braverman said: “Well, I have huge admiration for Elton John, but what I would say is that we need to be, again honest about what’s actually happening on the ground.
“And as I said in my speech, we need to be clear about what constitutes persecution – persecution is where people are being tortured, where they are receiving ill-treatment, where they are having their human rights violated in a monstrous and grotesque way.”
She added that “we want to welcome people fleeing persecution to the UK”.
“That’s not the same as discrimination, and I fully acknowledge that it is miserable and incredibly tough around parts of the world to be gay or to be a woman – being a victim of discrimination shouldn’t necessarily qualify you for asylum protection in the UK.”
Sky News has asked the Home Office for more details about Ms Braverman’s claim.
Sir Chris said: “How many? Where’s your evidence? And how dare you scurry behind the apron strings of prejudice to hide the fact that you’ve manifestly failed to deal with the asylum mess you and your party created.”
There had been suggestions Ms Braverman was using the trip – taking place less than a week before the Conservative Party conference – to raise her profile as a potential successor to Rishi Sunak. She unsuccessfully ran to lead the party after Boris Johnson resigned.
It is not the first time Ms Braverman has delivered a speech which might be more at home in a leadership race. The speech in the US was signed off in the usual way, according to Downing Street.
Should Mr Sunak lose the next general election, it is likely he will be challenged for leadership of the party.
Asked by the PA news agency if her speech on Tuesday was made with leadership ambitions in mind, the home secretary said: “With respect, that is a slightly flippant interpretation of what is a very serious issue.”
She was asked about her leadership ambitions yesterday by Sky’s Mark Stone, saying: “I’m incredibly honoured to be here at the [American Enterprise Institute].
“The AEI represents the forefront of thought leadership and policymaking in the US and actually internationally, and to be hosted here to talk about migration in the international context, followed by meetings with my American counterparts is really again, part of my day job part of my duty as home secretary, I want to lead this conversation globally.
“And I want to work with like-minded partners to find a solution.”
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Braverman uses ‘unprecedented’ language
Ms Braverman also rejected claims she was lacking compassion following her speech, saying today: “No, I don’t think that is true.
“And what I would say is that we are facing unprecedented levels of illegal migration, not just in the UK but also in countries like the US and other Western or European nations.
“It’s right that we ask for greater collaboration at the international level among like-minded partners and, ultimately, the UK cannot sustain such levels of illegal migration, or indeed, legal migration.”
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And when it was put to her that reforming the UN Refugee Convention is an unrealistic goal, she said: “I am inviting my international partners to engage in an exercise of review and reform.
“Ultimately, I think it’s legitimate to ask these questions whether the definition of refugee in the international conventions is still fit for purpose, whether the definition of persecution has been stretched beyond a reasonable limit, and that’s in face of these high numbers that we are now seeing.”
Politics
Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last
There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.
But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.
A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.
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Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA
Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.
This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.
In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.
Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.
At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.
All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.
She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.
That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.
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(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA
Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.
On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.
On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.
But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.
Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.
Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.
I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.
“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.
That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.
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