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Suella Braverman has whipped up a fresh storm of controversy with comments on rough sleepers, pro-Palestinian protesters and police. 

It marks the latest chapter in Ms Braverman’s rapid rise to power and controversial time in one of the cabinet’s top jobs.

Here Sky News looks at the rows that have overshadowed her time in the role.

Pro-Palestinian protesters ‘hate marchers’

The home secretary has described pro-Palestinian protesters as “hate marchers”.

In an article for The Times newspaper, she went even further, adding: “I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza.

“They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups – particularly Islamists – of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland.

“Also, disturbingly reminiscent of Ulster are the reports that some of Saturday’s march group organisers have links to terrorist groups, including Hamas.”

In response, one former Tory cabinet minister said: “This is wholly offensive and ignorant of where people in Northern Ireland stand on the issues of Israel and Gaza.”

She also accused police of being biased in favour of left-wing protesters.

She claimed: “Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response, yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored even when clearly breaking the law.”

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Braverman criticises pro-Palestinian protests

Homeless tents a ‘lifestyle choice’

Ms Braverman stoked controversy with her claims rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice” and outlined plans to restrict homeless people from using tents.

The home secretary’s crackdown would have reportedly targeted “nuisance” tents, such as those blocking shop doorways, and would have meant charities handing out camping equipment faced being fined.

Pointing to San Francisco and Los Angeles in the US, Ms Braverman said these were examples of where “weak policies have led to an explosion of crime, drug taking, and squalor”.

Her proposal was branded “cruel and ignorant”, with critics accusing her of seeking “to dehumanise people and create a scapegoat in society”.

Here’s exactly what she said.

Speeding row

Ms Braverman was accused of breaking the ministerial code of conduct by asking civil servants to arrange a private speed awareness course after she was caught speeding in 2022.

Rishi Sunak faced pressure to take action and consulted his independent ethics adviser, who advised further investigation was not necessary.

Ms Braverman defended her actions, saying “nothing untoward happened”.

Mr Sunak said that after receiving a letter from Ms Braverman – in which she apologised for causing “distraction” – his decision was “these matters do not amount to a breach of the ministerial code”.

India ‘reservations’

After being knocked out of the race to become Conservative Party leader – and Prime Minister – in the second round of voting, Ms Braverman backed eventual winner Liz Truss – and was rewarded by being appointed home secretary in September 2022.

But within weeks she appeared to defy her own prime minister by revealing she had concerns about government plans to allow more visa flexibility to people coming to the UK from India.

She told The Spectator magazine: “I do have some reservations. Look at migration in this country – the largest group of people who overstay are Indian migrants.”

Her comments reportedly sparked a furious backlash in New Delhi and were said to have almost torpedoed trade deal talks.

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‘Any regrets home secretary?’

‘Tofu-eating wokerati’

Ms Braverman also caused a stir as she defended the government’s controversial Public Order Bill, which was aimed at cracking down on disruptive protests.

Describing demonstrators, she claimed those taking part included “the Labour Party, it’s the Lib Dems, it’s the coalition of chaos, it’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, dare I say, the anti-growth coalition that we have to thank for the disruption that we are seeing on our roads today”.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded Ms Braverman’s words “astonishing”, adding: “The home secretary actually talked about a coalition of chaos, we can see it in front of us as we speak.”

Email ‘mistake’

But Ms Braverman’s first stint as home secretary then ended after 43 days when she resigned after breaching government security rules.

It emerged that she had sent an official document from her personal email to a backbench MP – which she admitted had been a “mistake”.

But in her resignation letter she took aim at then prime minister Liz Truss, accusing her of breaking “key pledges that were promised to our voters”.

She also expressed “serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments”, particularly on immigration.

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PM refuses to back Braverman

Migrants ‘invasion’ row

Ms Braverman returned as home secretary less than a week after being forced out – after being reappointed to the role by the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

But within days she sparked another row after claiming that illegal immigration was “out of control” – while also describing migrants coming to the UK as an “invasion”.

It came amid another controversy as Labour accused her of being silent on Channel crossings and overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent, where outbreaks of MRSA and diphtheria had been been reported.

The site was designed to hold 1,000 people for up to 48 hours, but at the time there were around 4,000 migrants there – more than any UK prison population.

Even her colleagues held back from endorsing her comments, with immigration minister Robert Jenrick telling Sky News: “In a job like mine, you have to choose your words very carefully. And I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life.”

‘Cowardly attack’ on civil servants

Ms Braverman was then accused of carrying out a “cowardly attack” on civil servants in March 2023 after an email was sent to Tory supporters blaming government workers for blocking plans aimed at stopping small boats crossing the Channel.

The letter claimed an “activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party” had prevented the government from tackling the issue.

The email, which prompted fury from the FDA civil servants union, had the home secretary’s name at the end, implying she had written and signed it.

However, Cabinet Secretary Simon Case later said someone else was responsible and insisted that Ms Braverman “did not see, sign off or sanction the email” before it was sent – while Conservative chairman Greg Hands apologised “for the error”.

Rwanda rows

Ms Braverman has also attracted controversy over her enthusiastic backing of the government’s policy of deportation flights to Rwanda. The policy was launched in April 2022 under her predecessor Priti Patel, but is yet to get off the ground.

The first flight was set to take off in June 2022 with four people on board, but was halted after a number of legal challenges and an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which said the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm”.

Ms Braverman, who visited the country in March for a tour of potential migrant housing, previously described front page news confirming the deportation of people to Rwanda as her “dream”, and said it was her “obsession” to see a plane take off under the scheme.

But both her rhetoric and the policy have been heavily criticised, including by refugee charities. They have described the plans as “cruel and nasty” and argue they will do nothing to deter people from travelling across the Channel.

‘Far-right narratives’

Ms Braverman was further criticised earlier this year for claiming that grooming gang members are “almost all British Pakistani”.

She also told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “What we’ve seen is a practice whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks.”

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Dozens of organisations, medical bodies and business leaders urged her to withdraw the comments, accusing her of “amplifying far-right narratives”.

The remarks were also criticised as factually inaccurate given a Home Office-commissioned study in 2020 found that group-based child sexual exploitation offenders are most commonly white males under 30.

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Is Suella Braverman looking for the top job?

‘Leadership pitch’

Ms Braverman was also accused back in May of undermining Rishi Sunak with a speech at the National Conservatism conference which some saw as a pitch by her to become new Tory leader.

Former cabinet minister Robert Buckland suggested to Sky News at the time that she should “concentrate on the job” of being the home secretary.

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Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

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Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.

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Starmer and Macron agree need for ‘new deterrent’ to stop small boat crossings

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Starmer and Macron agree need for 'new deterrent' to stop small boat crossings

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.

High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.

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The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.

The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.

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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.

“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.

“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”

It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.

“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.

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“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.

He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.

“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.

“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.

“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”

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