Suella Braverman hits out at Rishi Sunak: 'Britain faces threat of radicalisation, your response has been weak'

A day after being fired, former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote a scathing letter to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, saying his response to the rising threat of radicalisation in the country had been weak. Braverman said she agreed to support Sunak because of the firm assurances he gave her on key policy priorities that included a reduction in overall legal migration.

The former home secretary said that for a year, she had sent numerous letters to the PM on the key subjects but "this was often met with equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest".

"You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies. Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises," Braverman said in a 3-page strongly-worded letter.

Sunak fired Braverman after she in an article accused the city police of being biased while handling pro-Palestine rallies in London. The former home secretary accused Sunak of going slow on many key promises made by the Conservative Party in the 2019 manifesto. She also said that Sunak had failed to contain antisemitism incidents in the UK following a brutal attack by Hamas on Israel.  

"Another cause for disappointment - and the context for my recent article in The Times - has been your failure to rise to the challenge posed by the increasingly vicious antisemitism and extremism displayed on our streets since Hamas's terrorist atrocities of 7th October," she said.

Braverman said she had become hoarse urging Sunak to consider legislation to ban the hate marches and help stem the "rising tide of racism, intimidation, and terrorist glorification threatening community cohesion". "Britain is at a turning point in our history and faces a threat of radicalisation and extremism in a way not seen for 20 years," she said.

"I regret to say that your response has been uncertain, weak, and lacking in the qualities of leadership that this country needs. Rather than fully acknowledge the severity of this threat, your team disagreed with me for weeks that the law needed changing," the former home secretary said.

Braverman said the Prime Minister sought to put off tough decisions in order to minimise political risk to himself. "Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time. You need to change course urgently," she said, adding that she will, of course, continue to support the government in pursuit of policies which align with an authentic conservative agenda.