The minister who did everything to get fired

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The minister who did everything to get fired 

 

Wolfgang Hansson 

 

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.  

 

Published 2023-11-15 20.33  

 

Suella Braverman was an unusual minister.  

 

She did everything she could to get sacked as UK Home Secretary.  

 

Once she gets it, she uses the dismissal as a platform for a furious attack on Prime Minister Sunak and as part of a future attempt to take over his job. 

 

Normally, a sacked minister keeps a low profile. Suella Braverman does the exact opposite.  

 

In a three-page letter written on House of Commons letterhead, she utterly condemns Rishi Sunak's leadership.  

 

She calls him weak and indecisive and claims he failed both her and the voters. Braverman writes that she set several conditions to support Sunak and take the job.  

 

One of the most important demands was that the government should put an end to the refugee boats across the English Channel and send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their case tried there.  

 

Braverman was one of the government's most extreme ministers who, among other things, pushed for Britain to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Photo: AP  

 

Now Braverman is accusing Sunak of not delivering on a single one of his promises. 

 

She promises to lead a revolt within the party where the demand is that the deportations to Rwanda should be carried out despite the British Supreme Court today unanimously ruling that they are illegal. Braverman wants to see new legislation and accuses Sunak of not having a plan B now that HD has said no.  

 

Her letter can be seen as a sign that the power struggle that started within the Conservative Party ahead of the referendum on Brexit, Britain's exit from the EU, is now continuing.  

 

Since 2016, the party has been ruled by the most conservative phalanx, the one that, under Boris Johnson's leadership, pushed through Brexit.  

 

The return of former prime minister David Cameron combined with Braverman's exit is an indication that Sunak wants to move the party back towards the center in a desperate bid to avoid a disaster election next year.  

 

Apart from the fact that Cameron has all the conditions to become a competent foreign minister in a turbulent time, Sunak also wants to signal that the battle over Brexit is over and that it is time to unite the party again.  

 

But Brexiteers do not want a return to traditional Conservative politics.  

 

It is in a sense the same battle we see within the Republican Party in the US with the difference that Trump still retains his grip on the party in the US while Boris Johnson has turned into a peripheral figure in British politics.

   

At the moment it is perhaps best to add.  

Braverman was one of the government's most extreme ministers. She made one statement after another that resulted in strong criticism, even from some of her own party mates.  

 

What finally broke the bank for Rishi Sunak was when she accused British police of using double standards when they gave permission for pro-Palestinian demonstrations that she herself called "hate marches".  

 

She also claimed that the homeless who camped had chosen it as a lifestyle on the grounds that "nobody in Britain who doesn't want to live in a tent".  

 

Before that, many people raised their eyebrows when she said that it might be necessary for Great Britain to leave the international conventions on the right of asylum.  

 

Braverman very deliberately tested the limits. She does not see the resignation as minister as something negative. On the contrary. She will wear the role of sacked minister with pride and use it in her continued political career.  

 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunka and Suella Braverman. Photo: Phil Noble/AP  

 

At some point in the next year, Sunak must call new elections.  

 

All opinion polls point to the next government being led by Labor under Keir Starmer. Few believe that the Conservatives could regain Labour's lead of 15-20 percentage points. 

 

Sunak will almost certainly be challenged for the leadership role if the Conservatives, as expected, lose the election.  

 

Then Suella Braverman stands on the sidelines ready to take over.  

 

In that situation, the fact that she was fired as a minister will soon be seen as a quality stamp by the party's most conservative members. 

 

Once again, it will be a battle between the forces that want a more traditional conservative Tory party and those that want to stick to Boris Johnson's more right-wing populist and nationalist line.

 

Considering all the problems Brexit has created in Great Britain despite Boris' promises to the contrary, it is rather the friends of Europe who have wind in their sails.  

 

Not that the UK is heading back into the EU but Sunak is clearly trying to get closer to the EU and repair some of the bad relations.  

 

Although Braverman is far to the right and only has the support of a minority within the party, she could still be a pain for Sunak's attempts to ma