By Tony O’Reilly-
Suella Braverman has departed as UK home secretary over direction of government policies.
Bruverman’s resignation was discussed with the prime minister, who had been due to visit a defence technology company on Wednesday afternoon and do a TV clip, but cancelled for a meeting with the former Home Secretary in the House of Commons, sources said. It is unclear why the home secretary has left government.
Downing Street denied that Braverman had been sacked but did not respond to requests for clarification about the nature of her departure.
However, a letter of her resignation published revealed her serious concerns about broken key pledges promised to our voters, including the Government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.
She said the British public deserved policing they can respect , and an immigration policy they want and voted for in such unambiguous numbers at the last election, and laws which serve the public good, and not the interests of selfish protesters.
Bruverman’s resignation is a massive blow to the prime minister’s authority after she was forced to sack Kwasi Kwarteng and rip up her economic strategy to avoid a markets meltdown.
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”.
Braverman was an outspoken critic of Truss’s U-turn on the top rate of tax, suggesting she thought the prime minister had fallen victim to a “coup” earlier this month. Some Tory MPs on the libertarian right of the party have been left dismayed by the prime minister’s subsequent moves to ditch other tax cuts.
Braverman’s departure comes after the Home Office passed a major piece of legislation – the Public Order Act. An ally who spoke to her earlier this week said she had been “upbeat”.
The new public order laws are explicitly designed to give police greater powers to crack down on “guerilla” protest tactics. It specifically names the protests of Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, and Insulate Britain as reasons it’s needed.
Among the measures are new offences for “locking on”, disrupting transport and infrastructure, and “Serious Disruption Prevention Orders”, which can restrict people’s freedom by imposing conditions on repeat offenders. Police would also be given greater stop and search powers to prevent disruptive protest.
MPs on the Joint Committee for Human Rights raised concerns that a number of measures in the bill reverse this, meaning someone accused of an offence will have to prove their innocence.
“By imposing an unnecessary reversal of the burden of proof they also appear to be inconsistent with the presumption of innocence and the Article 6 ECHR right to a fair trial,” the committee wrote.
The government brushed these concerns off.
“Placing the burden of proof on the prosecution would water down the ability to deal effectively with those who cause disruption by ‘locking on’. It is not unusual for the burden of proof to fall on the defendant,” it said.
“There are multiple offences where this is the case, including sections 23, 24 and 28 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
P.S: This article was updated following the full publication of Ms Bruverman’s resignation letter.