Braverman ‘stirring hatred and division’ as Sunak urged to sack her

Tory MPs are receiving complaints from constituents about Suella Braverman’s inflammatory rhetoric, a former minister has said.

Tim Loughton, the MP for Worthing and Shoreham, also accused the home secretary of “plying her own agenda” in open defiance of No 10.

“She’s not making it easy, I have to say,” he told the News Agents podcast when asked if Braverman’s position was now untenable.

“And this needs to come to a head, it’s doing quite a lot of damage. We cannot have senior members of the cabinet, on the face of it, defying No 10 and plying her own agenda.

He added: “And some of the comments she has made have been unhelpful. And many of us are getting emails from constituents to that effect as well, so it needs to stop.”

Suella Braverman was confronted by a shout of “Did you forget your resignation letter?” as she left her home in Hertfordshire earlier amid calls for her to be sacked for her comments accusing police of bias, Holly Patrick reports.

The Home Secretary wrote an article, which was not signed off by Downing Street as significant changes were requested, ahead of a march calling for a Gaza ceasefire on Armistice Day.

She accused officers of “playing favourites” with pro-Palestinian protesters, who she said are “largely ignored” by police “even when clearly breaking the law.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has distanced himself from Ms Braverman’s comments.

No 10 said the PM still had concerns about the actions of those who may splinter off from the main procession tomorrow, despite Rishi Sunak’s meeting with the Met Commissioner earlier this week, Kate Devlin reports.

“Given the arrests we have seen following previous protests and given the actions needed to be taken following previous protests, we do continue to share those concerns,” Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said.

Suella Braverman appears to be on a “personal mission” to “retoxify” the Conservative Party brand, a Tory peer has said.

Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, said the home secretary was making the job of the police harder.

He also warned Braverman was making it more difficult for Tory MPs to get reelected at the next general election, expected in the spring or summer of next year.

“She is personally on a mission, as far as I can see, to re-toxify the Conservative brand,” he told Times Radio.

And it’s not so much the issues that she talks about. If you take the example, before this latest article … about the demonstrations, when she talked about people living on the streets being a lifestyle choice.

“if you’re a Conservative, she’s not helping. And more importantly, for those of your listeners that aren’t Conservatives, she’s making the job of the police at this most difficult time, even harder.”

Listen to a clip of the interview here:

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No 10 is continuing to investigate how an op-ed by the home secretary accusing the police of bias and playing favourites over protests came to be published, Kate Devlin reports.

But Downing Street said Rishi Sunak still had full confidence in Suella Braverman. The phrase is often repeated by governments up until the moment a senior minister is sacked, however.

And No 10 would not say if the two had talked, despite emphasising that work was going on in government to ensure Remembrance weekend events pass off peacefully.

Britain’s top civil servant launched a savage attack on Matt Hancock during the pandemic, telling Boris Johnson to sack the “lying” health secretary to “save lives and protect the NHS”, the Covid inquiry heard on Wednesday.

NatWest has stripped its former boss Dame Alison Rose of £7.6 million in payouts after she was forced to resign over the Nigel Farage debanking row.

Much has been said and written about Braverman’s incendiary claim in a recent newspaper article that the police are biased in how they deal with protests.

The remarks are the latest in a string of inflammatory comments made by the home secretary, a darling of the Tory right who is tipped as a future leader of the party.

Was Braverman simply stating her true beliefs in the comment piece, which also provoked outrage in Northern Ireland, or was she trying to get sacked so that she could launch a leadership campaign, eventually taking over from Rishi Sunak, should he lose the next election and resign as party leader.

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