Katy Balls Katy Balls

Suella Braverman out as Home Secretary

Just as it seemed a brief calm was emerging in the Tory party, the Prime Minister has lost her Home Secretary. Suella Braverman has left her role with Grant Shapps brought in to replace her. The circumstances of her departure are shrouded in mystery for now – but government sources suggest this is not a simple resignation.

There has been friction between Braverman and No. 10 in recent weeks: at Tory conference, Braverman said a ‘coup’ had taken place when Truss was forced to abandon her 45p tax cut – and she is understood to have felt that Jeremy Hunt’s appointment proved she was right in her controversial choice of word. She was also at odds with Truss over immigration: she wants a big crackdown and Truss was more relaxed, even ready to throw visas in to new trade deals.

But the eventual cause of Braverman’s departure was – we’re told – something else entirely. In her resignation latter (below) she says she resigned because she sent an official email from the wrong account: a ‘technical infringement of the rules’. It was an official document about migration sent from her personal email to a parliamentary colleague. It is thought to have related to relaxing immigration rules which was viewed in Downing Street as key to economic growth and therefore the OBR forecast.

No 10 only learned of it after she cc’d wrong person onto email in which she shared it

Some in government suggest it relates to a security matter with figures in government suggesting Braverman made an ‘honest mistake’

Braverman still, however, manages to fire a parting shot or two. She voices concerns over the government’s manifesto commitment to reducing net migration (Truss is more relaxed about current levels). Then she says that she believes people who make mistakes should quit. ‘Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see that we have made them and hoping things will magically come right is not serious politics.

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