Prime Minister Liz Truss reportedly had a 90-minute “shouting match” with the now-former Home Secretary Suella Braverman over broken promises, particularly on controlling immigration, before the latter was forced from office.
Braverman, who along with Kemi Badenoch — now Trade Secretary — was seen as the “right-wing” candidate by grassroots conservatives during the race to replace Boris Johnson, as a Brexit supporter who put a focus on tackling illegal migration, reducing legal mass migration, and taking on social justice leftists in British institutions over the course of her leadership campaign.
Like Badenoch, Braverman was not allowed to reach the final two candidates ordinary party members were allowed to choose from, but the former Attorney-General was brought into the Cabinet by Truss as a sop to members considered by the issues she had campaigned as Home Secretary — broadly responsible for policing, national security, and immigration in government.
Unlike predecessor Priti Patel, however, Braverman continued to push immigration control in word and deed, leading to significant tensions with a Prime Minister who was not especially interested in it — indeed, Truss declined to make the ever-worsening Channel Migrant crisis a priority on taking office and has been pushing to increase immigration in the name of “growth”.
Unlike tax cuts and energy bills support, key parts of the Truss platform she has been forced to abandon or reduce as the party establishment led by anti-Brexit lockdown authoritarian Jeremy Hunt takes charge of her floundering government, increased immigration is still part of her agenda — and reportedly caused a blazing row with Braverman ahead of her exit from government.
Officially, Braverman was made to resign as Home Secretary over sending a fellow Tory MP an email about immigration policy which was supposed to be confidential, but with such leaks being par for the course in British politics it is widely accepted that this was a mere pretext for getting rid of her because — again, unlike her tough talk, no action predecessor, Priti Patel — she was unwilling to go along with the open borders agenda.
“Suella said, this is insane, why are we trying to appease the OBR? Is everything getting thrown out the window?” said an ally of Braverman in comments to The Telegraph, in reference to the unelected Office for Budget Responsibility which, like much of the establishment, considers immigration-driven increases in GDP to be ipso facto a good thing.
“Make no mistake — at the root of Suella Braverman’s resignation is a difference of view on immigration,” said Professor Matthew Goodwin, author of National Populism, of the clash between the Prime Minister and her erstwhile Home Secretary.
“Truss wants to follow Boris Johnson by liberalising policy on immigration & ducking fight with [the European Court of Human Rights],” Goodwin added, referring to the boat migrants crisis in the English Channel which the Tories have failed to control at least in part due to rulings by European judges.
“Braverman thinks this is a betrayal of the 2019 electorate,” he explained.
This view appeared to be confirmed by Steven Swinford, political editor of The Times, when he reported that Truss had refused to endorse the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto pledge to bring immigration numbers down overall.
Boris Johnson had already dropped the longstanding pledge to reduce immigration “from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands” — which the Tories never came close to achieving because, according to David Cameron’s former Chancellor and right-hand man George Osborne, party leaders never intended to keep it.