Suella Braverman has been accused of daring No 10 to sack her with provocative comments designed to cement her position as the rightwing frontrunner to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.
Former ministers and Tory insiders claim that the home secretary is deliberately making unauthorised statements on homelessness, demonstrations and multiculturalism to woo the party’s hard-right base.
The prime minister has refused to endorse Braverman’s claims that rough sleeping is sometimes a “lifestyle choice” and the flagship criminal justice bill has been delayed amid resistance from some cabinet ministers over her measures to stop tents being given to homeless people. Ministers have also refused to repeat Braverman’s description of pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”.
Colleagues suspect Braverman has calculated that she has little to lose by making hard-hitting statements that appeal to the party membership.
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According to YouGov, she’s got an approval rating of 15%. Sack the nasty bigot and by all means let her lead her party further into the wilderness.
~15% of the population are just unrepentant sociopaths then, I guess.
I’ve often been suspicious of YouGov though because they have this tendency to ask questions in a way that gets them the results they want.
If they want a result that shows that people like Braverman, then they make sure not to ask questions anywhere where they might accidentally get some young people answering. Probably a good idea to go to a retirement home or exclusively ask people coming out of a Waitrose. They very much are not going to the universities, and they are not going to the abandoned Northern cities. As long as they stay south of Bedford they should be ok.
They are right leaning, and not independent, so I don’t trust their findings, for the most part. I don’t believe they actively lie (except by omission) but I do think they’re dishonest in the way they collect their information.
So she’s got 15% of the vote when it’s been massively biased in her favour. It’s not exactly a great endorsement.
I had a fever dream the other day that Sunak’s plan is to bide his time until three months before the election and announce he’s standing down. All the major players have as much said they will too which will pave the way for Braverman to take charge into the election and carry the Tories into the worst drubbing since 2019 Corbyn (hopefully worse).
That’s one way to purge the party, I suppose?
Well he did have his next job interview with Elongated Muskrat t’other day so its a distinct possibility.
As for Cruella, she still hasn’t cottoned on to the fact that her extremism only appeals to the sort of person who’ll never vote for a brown skinned candidate.
What, a dumb racist? No way.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Suella Braverman has been accused of daring No 10 to sack her with provocative comments designed to cement her position as the rightwing frontrunner to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.
Former ministers and Tory insiders claim that the home secretary is deliberately making unauthorised statements on homelessness, demonstrations and multiculturalism to woo the party’s hard-right base.
One former minister told the Guardian: “It is as if she wants to be fired so she can get on with a leadership bid … If she is tied to the government for too long, she will have to carry some of the blame for Rishi’s failure – and few people think he will win a general election outright.”
However, Braverman is closely tied to Sunak through his promise to “stop the boats” and the court battle, expected to conclude in mid December, which will decide whether the government can deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
If the government loses, there will be pressure from Braverman’s backers in two hard-right Tory factions – the Common Sense Group and the New Conservatives – to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
In the Commons, Keir Starmer openly suggested Braverman should not be in her job, saying Sunak “cannot be a serious prime minister” if he continues with the home secretary pursuing “her divisive brand of politics”.
The original article contains 927 words, the summary contains 222 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
