22 May 2023
Another week, another senior cabinet minister facing demands to resign.
This time it is the Home Secretary Suella Braverman – and the key question is whether she misused her office and advisers in respect of dealing with what followed from a speeding offence.
And this means the key question is again not anything to do with policy.
Of course: this Home Secretary should not even be in office.
As this blog set out in plodding detail, her two accounts of that last incident did not add up.
In particular, the statement in her (last) resignation letter that “[a]s soon as I realised my mistake, I rapidly reported this on official channels, and informed the Cabinet Secretary” was simply not correct.
But it doesn’t matter; and it never now matters.
The detail of what happened last time is so much ancient history – even though it was only a few months ago.
The question of whether she stays on is one of pure politics – not law, not policy, not administration.
Does the Home Secretary have the political power to stay on? Or does the Prime Minister have the political power to get rid of her?
One should not underestimate the Prime Minister in these situations: he deftly got rid of Dominic Raab by the expedient of delaying any decision to endorse him.
The Prime Minister did not become a head boy at a big school or a senior banker without knowing how to play certain games.
And so we may now also be seeing again the former Goldman Sachs banker “managing out” a troublesome junior colleague.
Who knows.
But perhaps those (of us) who would want to see Braverman no longer at the Home Office should be careful about what we wish for.
Her replacement might be an actually competent hardline Home Secretary.
Though, of course, it must also be said there are not that many potentially competent hardline ministers left for any department.
Cabinet ministers come and go, but the lack of any substantial policy and reform looks likely as if it will stay a while longer.
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One week making a thinly veiled bid for the top job, the next fighting for survival. Perhaps Sunak wanted to stop the boasts.
I favour her staying. Let the wound fester.
Incompetent, negligent hardline Home Secretaries do a lot of harm too … Just think of all those asylum seekers waiting years in wretched limbo for the Home Office to decide their cases.
I also wonder whether an intelligent, competent hardline Home Secretary would decide the cost-benefits to him / her of dropping their extremism far outweighed the pleasures of being nasty. Behaving as a half-way decent human being would so easily mark you out as someone “special”, “different” and “attractive” to a nation and political party used to repellent politicians.
Agreed. The nasty party isn’t working, they really do need to tack towards the centre ground.
[And if Braverman goes, then what?]
I nominate: A Les Braverman…
Should she go – and one fervently hopes she will – it is accurate to observe that the Tories have not only scraped the barrel, they are mining the dirt underneath it. Surely only embittered ex ministers, the no hopers and the insane or just too stupid are left. The inevitable fag ends of an administration far too long in power. But surely there is someone not quite so cruel and spiteful as the last two incumbents?
Better to keep her. I should say Ms Braverman is in a fairly good place. She makes a good demon queen at the pantomime, Sunak could get rid of her, but maybe he prefers her inside the tent rather than outside. She takes the lefty media flak away from him.
For a replacement – not Raab (ha ha) but maybe Coffey or Chalk. Both would need armtwisting/bribing because the HO looks a thoroughly rotten job. No one with any sense would want the Home Office and the Tory ship seems to be listing badly. Not a good time for changing crew.
Then the Tories may lose the coming election – but Ms Braverman has a safe seat and there is Boris as Cincinnatus to consider when Sunak has been chucked on the scrap heap, before or after the coming election. She can sit this out, Sunak not so much.
I agree with your comments “be careful what you wish for” but when an individual is so obviously unfit for any form of public office they have to go. My hope would be that she does a “Raab” and leaves political life for ever ( unlikely I know as she has a much safer seat) and as she is also currently under investigation by the legal profession, I have a dream – she also loses her licence to practice and takes up a new career of butcher/ fruit picker or HGV driver!!!
In France, having travelled there in a small boat. Would she obtain a working permit there however?
Ted Heath sacked Enoch Powell without looking for an excuse to justify his decision.
I miss that this site does not allow for the upvoting of comments – I’d really like to do so with this one!
Sometimes political decisions are just – political. And a stronger man than Sunak would have the necessary cojones.
In almost all cases, intelligence and competence are incompatible with hardline rightwingism. So the risk of a highly effective hardline replacement Home Secretary is pretty low. All the more so now that the country is beginning to see through their empty promises (lies), which will make it much harder for a hardline rightwinger to persuade the country that they have the simple answers to their complex problems.
Sunak very carefully a avoided supporting Braverman’s account. If he was minded to keep her he would have done. It might be he’s making sure such support won’t immediately bite him as more details emerge, but “managing her out” appears to be what is happening.
Are there any competent hardliners left? Were there ever any? I think what he needs is a mouthpiece who can keep supplying red meat for the party faithful and who is competent in front of the press, if not in the Commons. Someone wealthy enough not to be drunk on power and privilege. Someone guaranteed to goad the opposition. Jacob Rees-Mogg perhaps? Though his recent admission that photo ID for voting was an attempt at gerrymandering was something of an own goal.