The “unapologetically” anti-open borders Suella Braverman has been reinstalled as Home Secretary just over a week after dramatically resigning from the post, in a potential signal from newly-installed Sunak government to Conservative voters that it may actually be looking to clamp down on mass migration.
While most of the selections for Rishi Sunak’s new cabinet have consisted of establishment picks from both the Johnson and Truss governments, one choice has raised eyebrows among Westminster watchers: the re-instatement of Suella Braverman at the Home Office, the government department tasked with setting and enforcing immigration policy for the nation.
Just last week, Braverman resigned from the Truss government after declaring that she had “serious concerns” over the government’s intention of honouring the 2019 manifesto pledge to cut overall immigration and put a stop to the illegal migrant crisis in the English Channel.
During her brief tenure as Home Secretary under Truss, Braverman, a daughter of immigrants herself, took a publicly hardline on immigration, saying that she would work to finally fulfil the long-promised but never realised promise from the Tories to cut legal migration to the “tens of thousands”.
The staunch Brexiteer, who was previously backed by Nigel Farage in the summer’s leadership contest to replace Boris Johnson, also made waves by declaring at the Conservative Party Conference: “It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise to want to control our borders. It’s not bigoted to say that there are too many asylum seekers that are abusing the system. It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration places pressure on housing, public services and community relations.”
“We have got to stop the boats crossing the Channel,” Braverman continued, acknowledging: “This has gone on for far too long.”
Her return to the post of Home Secretary may signal that Sunak may be serious about his previous promises to “take back control” of the nation’s borders, given that Braverman would have likely received assurances from Sunak about giving her the room to actually accomplish such a task. However, as happened during the Truss government, it is likely that a square off between the open-borders crew headed up by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Braverman will take place.
Mr Hunt, who essentially became de-facto Prime Minster in the waning days of the Truss administration, scrapping at will all of her key policies and pushing out Braverman, has been a proponent of the theory that mass migration increases GDP. Braverman has argued that there are other factors to consider when dealing with immigration, such as the strains it places on the housing supply, the nation’s healthcare system, and social cohesion.
She said earlier this month that she would seek to limit the number of visas handed out to foreign students and foreign workers.
With Sunak facing harsh criticism from the small-c conservative wing of his party’s base, the selection of Braverman as Home Secretary may offer clues to his strategy at retaining power, namely, taking a neo-liberal globalist line on economics, while offering up the red meat of immigration curbs to appease the Tory membership.
Both Braverman and Sunak have backed the Johnson-era plan to send illegal migrants to the East African nation of Rwanda to have their asylum claims processed offshore rather than on British soil in the hopes that it will deter further illegal migrants from attempting to break into the country.
During the Summer contest to replace Boris Johnson, Sunak also outlined a plan to set a cap on the number of refugees per year, as well as limiting the bounds of who can apply for asylum. He also proposed withholding foreign aid from countries that refuse to accept the return of criminal aliens.
One of the first major battles to watch to see who will prevail on the issue of mass migration will come during negotiations with India for a post-Brexit trade deal. Negotiations reportedly fell apart after Suella Braverman openly argued against the inclusion of increased visas for Indian nationals as a part of the trade deal. Sunak, whose family hails from India, is likely to pursue the trade deal in order to achieve an early win as the nation’s first Asian-heritage PM. Whether that will include concessions on migration remains to be seen.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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