Dogs bark, cows moo and the Home Office leaks like a sieve. Unfortunately, this time the finger of suspicion has fallen on Suella Braverman, the Secretary of State for the most malfunctioning ministry in all of Whitehall. Braverman has reportedly been dubbed ‘leaky Sue’ after repeatedly sending official documents to her personal email – the reason which forced her resignation from government 12 days ago.
On one occasion she tried to use her personal account to send a draft written ministerial statement to her parliamentary patron Sir John Hayes – but, in her words, ‘I entered the incorrect email address for his secretary unintentionally and unknowingly.’ That, er, is something of an understatement: Braverman had actually emailed a staff member in the office of Andrew Percy, a Tory backbencher and vocal critic of Boris Johnson.
Braverman initially tried to get the staff member to delete it, requesting, breezily ‘Please can you delete the message and ignore. Thanks.’ Percy, though, was not amused and sent the following email to Braverman, in evidence which has now been released to the Home Affairs Select Committee:
Suella I am really not sure that government documents should be being shared with members of your former campaign team via gmail. Can you tell me what the Ministerial Code says on this and what the processes are in the Home Office for the sharing of sensitive government documents via gmail. Simply asking my team to delete this email and ignore it is not an acceptable response to what appears, on the face of it, to be a potentially serious breach of security. I am considering a point of order on this issue and have raised it with the Chief Whip. I hope an explanation will be forthcoming. You are nominally in charge of the security of this nation, we have received many warnings even as lowly backbenchers about cyber security. Andrew Percy.
Ooft. Talk about damning. Shortly thereafter, Braverman with the Cabinet Secretary and the then Prime Minister Liz Truss before tendering her resignation. Looks like that’s one backbencher who won’t be cheering on her return…
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