COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary - with James Cleverly appointed as her replacement



She was asked to leave the job this morning by Rishi Sunak.

Mr Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary, was moved to take over the Home Office brief.

Shortly after, former prime minister David Cameron was appointed foreign secretary - and handed a "barony" so he can serve in government again.

A former prime minister returning to government in this way is highly unusual.

In a statement released after her sacking, Ms Braverman said: "It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary. I will have more to say in due course."

Mr Cleverly later said: "It's been a huge privilege to serve as foreign secretary. And in that time, I've worked very closely with my colleagues in the Home Office cracking down on illegal migration, reducing the number of small boat arrivals.

"And now, as the home secretary, I'm absolutely committed to stopping the boats, as we promised, but also making sure that everybody in the UK feels safe and secure, going around, going about their daily business, knowing that the government is here to protect them. So it's a fantastic job and it's a real privilege to serve."

Asked if he would distance himself from the words used by his predecessor, he added: "Well, I intend to do this job in the way that I feel best protects the British people and our interests.

"I have had a very good conversation with the prime minister, who's made it very clear that [he] wants us to deliver on our promises to stop the boats, to the British people, make sure everybody feels secure in their lives. Thank you very much.

In a post on the Conservative Party's social media, it claims Mr Sunak's reshuffle today "strengthens his team in government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future".

But the move to sack Ms Braverman will anger some in the party. Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns said on X: "I support Suella Braverman. Sacked for speaking the truth. Bad call by Rishi caving in to the left!"

As well as Ms Braverman being sacked, a number of junior ministers also left government.

Nick Gibb, who has been a minister in the Deparment for Education for much of the past decade, announced he was standing down.

Neil O'Brien said he had asked to return to the backbenches from his role as a junior minister in the Department for Health and Social Care.

Will Quince also announced that he would step down as a junior minister in DHSC, and Jesse Norman said he would be standing down as a DfT minister.

Suella Braverman accuses Rishi Sunak of betrayal in scathing resignation letter



Suella Braverman has launched a full-scale attack on her old boss Rishi Sunak, a day after he sacked her as home secretary.

In a blistering letter to the prime minister, she said he had repeatedly failed on key policies and broken pledges over immigration.

Mr Sunak had adopted "wishful thinking" to "avoid having to make hard choices", she wrote.

And she accused him of having "no real intention" of keeping his promises.

Mrs Braverman, a leading figure on the right of the party, claimed she struck a secret deal to serve in Mr Sunak's cabinet in exchange for a series of commitments, after Liz Truss's premiership imploded last year.

Her support, she added, had been a "pivotal factor" in allowing Mr Sunak to win the support of Tory MPs and enter No 10.

A No 10 spokesman thanked Mrs Braverman for her service, but added: "The prime minister was proud to appoint a strong, united team yesterday focused on delivering for the British people."

In her letter, the former home secretary told Mr Sunak he had "manifestly and repeatedly" failed to deliver on policy priorities.

"Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so," she wrote.

"Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises."

She added: "Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time. You need to change course urgently."

In her letter, Mrs Braverman said the conditions under which she agreed to become home secretary in October 2022 were set out in a "document with clear terms".

Sources close to Mrs Braverman claim Mr Sunak read and agreed the document the letter refers to, which had been drawn up by Mrs Braverman.

They say he took a copy and there were witnesses.

Mrs Braverman said the agreement included "firm assurances" on cutting legal migration, inserting measures to override the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into legislation to stop small boat crossings, delivering key Brexit legislation and issuing "unequivocal" guidance to schools on protecting biological sex and safeguarding single-sex spaces.

She accused Mr Sunak of "a betrayal of our agreement" and "a betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do 'whatever it takes' to stop the boats".

The letter comes ahead of a crucial ruling on Wednesday, when the Supreme Court will decide on the lawfulness of the government's plans to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Mrs Braverman told the PM that if the ruling went against the government, he would have "wasted a year" on the Illegal Migration Act, which aimed to stop small boat crossings, "only to arrive back at square one".

"Worse than this, your magical thinking - believing that you can will your way through this without upsetting polite opinion - has meant you have failed to prepare any sort of credible 'Plan B'."

She said she posed her own back-up plan but received no reply.

Mrs Braverman said the government's policy was "far from secure against legal challenge", and even if it won in the Supreme Court it would "struggle to deliver" on the Rwanda scheme because of "compromises" insisted on by Mr Sunak in legislation.