Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has fired Home Secretary Suella Braverman, according to an official familiar with the matter, after she defied his authority over the handling of a pro-Palestinian march and was accused of emboldening a far-right counter-protest which turned violent over the weekend.
Sunak came under pressure to punish Braverman for criticizing the Metropolitan Police in a newspaper commentary last week, hours after he had appeared to resolve disputes with the force’s commissioner about pro-Palestinian protests overlapping with annual events to commemorate Britain’s war dead.
She has since been blamed for drawing out far-right groups that clashed with officers during counter-protests in London and led to 145 arrests. Two Cabinet members on Sunday described the challenge to the prime minister’s authority as untenable, while the Labour Party accused her of inflaming tensions.
Sunak appointed the pugilistic Braverman to his government to mollify the right fringe of his party when he became prime minister just over a year ago. But an awkward political alliance became a liability as Braverman’s language became more strident. Her remark that homeless people sleep on streets as a “lifestyle choice” also angered Tories in recent days.
Ousting her is likely to lead to Braverman becoming a fierce critic of the administration at a crucial time. But had Sunak kept her, he would have fed efforts by opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer to paint the prime minister as weak ahead of an expected general election next year.
(Updates with context from third paragraph.)
