Mopping up Operation: De-Facto Prime Minister Fires UK Interior Minister Braverman

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 18 : Suella Braverman, UK home secretary, arriving at 10
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Oliver JJ Lane

Suella Braverman has been pushed out as UK Home Secretary, which according to ‘sources’ cited by a UK newspaper is at the “behest” of the country’s new finance minister, increasingly acknowledged to be acting as the unofficial, de-facto leader of the government.

Suella Braverman, the most obviously conservative minister in Liz Truss’s cabinet departed the government — officially she ‘resigned’ although the degree to which this was voluntary is already disputed — possibly one of the final acts in a cleaning-up operation in UK politics removing all hints of a potential change in direction for the government promised by Truss.

Braverman’s resignation letter, laced with sarcasm and allusions to a government with no interest in keeping its promises to the people, will likely go down in history as one of the most passive-aggressive in British politics.

Almost every fiscal reform announced by Prime Minister Truss, including several tax cuts, has now been reversed just weeks into her administration. Truss’s pick for chancellor — also known as finance minister — was dismissed last week and replaced by Jeremy Hunt, a pro-China globalist who is now called the de-facto Prime Minister, given he seems to be making all the major decisions and announcements in government.

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One such decision, according to a report in The Guardian, is the removal of Suella Braverman from the post of Home Secretary, the UK’s interior minister-equivalent and one of the most senior roles in government. The paper broke the news of her removal, reporting the extraordinary development that a cabinet minister junior to the Prime Minister is now making hiring and firing decisions within the British government.

The Guardian reported: “Sources claimed the move was at the behest of the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who has taken over control of the government’s economic response following Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, but who they claimed was now ‘pulling the strings’.”

Unlike most parliamentary members of the governing Conservative Party, Braverman presented as obviously small-c conservative, with views on border control, public order, and other matters that would chime with ordinary conservative voters. Although leaving office today, it was reportedly clear that she was fighting a losing battle to exert influence over the government, particularly over the matter of immigration.

Braverman had aspired to take Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights, an EU-era legacy body that works hard to block Britain from taking back control of its own borders. With the removal of Braverman, the hope of establishing border control appears all but dead.

Other parts of the government had already decided the best way to deal with rising inflation and low unemployment in the economy is to even further boost immigration, directly contradicting the new government’s promises to get immigration levels under control. According to reports, Braverman’s Home Office was simply sidelined in discussions on immigration, despite that being one of the key competencies of that office.

Perhaps knowing her time in office was limited, Braverman made an unusually bold interjection in the House of Commons earlier today, perhaps in a bid for a legacy, no matter how small. Talking about the left-wing environmental extremists blocking infrastructure around the country, Braverman called them “tofu-eating wokerati”.

To many, the prompt removal of ministers from government who wanted to change things and rapidly replacing them with politicians who aggressively defend the status-quo is starting to look like a coup. Indeed, Braverman’s resignation letter offers a reason for departure so tenuous it either marks her out as one of the most honest cabinet ministers ever, or that absolutely any reason at all was sought to get her out of the door.

In any case, Braverman’s letter is easily one of the most passive-aggressive resignation letters ever known in British politics, amply signalling Braverman’s disappointment with the new government she’s now leaving. Layering on the sarcasm and referring to PM Truss’s televised apology for having fluffed her first weeks in power, Braverman wrote:

…I hold myself to the highest standards and my resignation is the right thing to do. The business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes. Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see what 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.

… I have had serious concerns about this Government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration… even the brief time that I have been [at the Home Office], it has been very clear that there is much to do… I wish my successor good luck.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage, no stranger himself to having a hand in toppling Conservative governments, wrote of the extraordinary events in Westminster: “The [Hunt reshuffle] is on.  Suella Braverman looks to be out (Leaver and ECHR-sceptic). According to reports, she will be replaced by Grant Shapps (Remainer and Globalist). This is a coup, the Conservative party is dead.”

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