UK PM Rishi Sunak sacks Home Secretary Suella Braverman over Palestine remark

British PM Rishi Sunak has sacked country's interior minister Suella Braverman, the BBC reported on Monday. Braverman was under fire after she published an inflammatory article attacking the country police's handling of a planned pro-Palestinian march. Earlier, it was reported that Sunak was under pressure to sack her for her comments in the article. 

In an opinion piece published ahead of a pro-Palestinian march on Saturday, Braverman accused the police of "double standard" in the way they treat protesters.

Braverman claimed aggressive right-wing protesters were "rightly met with a stern response", while "pro-Palestinian mobs" were "largely ignored".

She went on to say police were applying "double standards" and "played favourites when it comes to demonstrators".

In the last one month, Braverman, who was seen as a possible candidate to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, has repeatedly criticised the protesters who have gathered in London since the Hamas attack on Israel last month.

A few days ago, she described the rallies calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as "hate marches". She said the pro-Palestine demonstrations are “an assertion of primacy by certain groups,” particularly Islamic extremists, “of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland,” referring to protests by Irish republican groups.

Initially, Sunak had chosen to back her, with 10 Downing Street office issuing a statement on Thursday saying that the Prime Minister has “full confidence in her” but that he did not approve of her comments.

Several ministers, including chancellor Jeremy Hunt, distanced themselves from Braverman’s comments.

Speaking to Sky News, UK armed forces minister James Heappey chose not to comment on the issue .

He said: “There has been too much second guessing of the Metropolitan Police by politicians on the media.”

He added he would not have used the words Braverman did, something that UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had said before.

Last week, it was reported that she was asked to tone down her article but she defied the Downing Street request and published it. Downing Street said it had launched an informal investigation into how Braverman's article came to be published without the changes they had requested.

Braverman is known for making controversial statements in the past. This is the second time that Braverman has left a cabinet position midway. During the Liz Truss government in 2022, she had served as the Home Secretary but left the role for breaking the ministerial code by sending an official document from her personal email account. She was brought back to the role around six weeks later when Sunak took over.

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