Controversial U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman is out
The Hindu
Grant Shapps, former transport secretary from the Boris Johnson government and a supporter of Rishi Sunak, will replace her
Suella Braverman, until Wednesday afternoon the British Home Secretary, resigned from her post, ostensibly on security grounds. The former Home Secretary had sent a sensitive email to a non-government Tory MP via her private email account.
However, there appeared to be more to the story, with Ms. Braverman writing that she had “concerns” with the embattled Liz Truss government, which is hanging on by a thread after announcing (and then reversing) tax cuts that were deeply unpopular with the markets.
”Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics. I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign,” Ms. Braverman wrote in her resignation letter, apparently referring to Ms. Truss’s refusal to resign over her botched economic plan.
A loud critic of migration, Ms. Braverman specified some of her concerns in her letter, including the government not honouring manifesto promises, such as lowering overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration. Paul Goodman, Editor of Conservative Home, tweeted that Ms. Braverman had resigned over pressure to make announcements regarding liberalising migration — to help the government’s growth plan meet its targets.
Additionally, Ms. Braverman had said earlier this month that she had “some reservations” about a U.K.-India trade deal — because Indians were the largest group of visa overstayers in the U.K. This had not gone down well with India.
While speaking at a Deepavali event on Tuesday, Ms. Braverman had said the U.K. had been “profoundly enriched” by Indian immigration, the Press Trust of India had reported.
“Naturally, there is an economic imperative for our countries to work together, which is why we are so eager to secure a trade deal,” Ms. Braverman had said, as per the report.
The 29th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP29), held at Baku in Azerbaijan, is arguably the most important of the United Nations’ climate conferences. It was supposed to conclude on November 22, after nearly 11 days of negotiations and the whole purpose was for the world to take a collective step forward in addressing rising carbon emissions.