Rishi Sunak will not refer Home Secretary Suella Braverman to an ethics probe over her handling of a speeding ticket last summer, after concluding she did not break the ministerial code.
Sunak was under severe pressure to take action, including from members of his governing Conservative Party, after The Sunday Times reported Braverman asked civil servants to help arrange a private driving-awareness course to prevent her speeding violation becoming public knowledge, a potential breach of ministerial rules against using public employees for personal matters.
The row exposed broader tensions in the party given Braverman is at the center of internal finger-pointing over the government’s performance, and last week made a speech widely interpreted as her own pitch for the leadership.
In an exchange of letters published on Wednesday, Sunak said he has accepted Braverman’s explanation of events as well as the advice of his ethics adviser. Still, he told the home secretary: “A better course of action could have been taken to avoid giving rise to the perception of impropriety.”
