Suella Braverman’s career as the shortest-serving home secretary since 1834 was characterised by a series of outlandish and colourful outbursts which caused No 10 and her cabinet colleagues to wince.
The MP for Fareham’s final parliamentary address in the post on Tuesday provoked ridicule as she attempted to blame Guardian readers and mashed soy products for Just Stop Oil protests.
To laughter from opposition MPs, she said: “It’s the Labour party, it’s the Lib Dems, it’s the coalition of chaos, it’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, dare I say, the anti-growth coalition that we have to thank for the disruption that we are seeing on our roads today.”
Read from a pre-written script, her words confused observers from both right and left. Was the idea of an anti-growth coalition still part of the Liz Truss government after it had ditched tax cuts?
It was not Braverman’s first unexpected intervention. At Conservative party conference, she revived calls for the government to aim for net migration of “tens of thousands” – a goal which remained out of reach for nine years under the governments of David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
The policy appeared to contradict Liz Truss’s promise to go for growth, even if it meant handing out more visas to foreign workers.
In an interview with the Spectator, Braverman expressed “reservations” about the multibillion-pound trade deal with the Indian government because she was concerned about making it easier for Indians to work and study in the UK. No 10 rowed back from her claim.
She floated an idea that cannabis might become a Class A drug before being contradicted by the prime minister’s spokesperson.
MPs on the right of the party believed Braverman, 42, was still running a campaign to become the next leader. And she might well have been paving the way for another attempt.
“She was not towing the line. We don’t know whether she knows how to,” said one.
Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman was born in Harrow, north-west London, to Christie Fernandes, a Kenyan of Christian Goan origin, and Uma Fernandes, a Mauritian of Indian origin.
Their only child, she was doted on by both parents who were hugely ambitious for her, according to friends.
The couple joined the Conservative party in the 1980s when Sir Rhodes Boyson, the bewhiskered Thatcherite hardliner, was the local MP for Brent North.
Christie worked in the voluntary sector for many years, according to Tory friends, while Uma worked in the NHS for 45 years and stood successfully to become a Conservative councillor.
Braverman won a partial scholarship to attend Heathfield private school before studying law at Queens’ College, Cambridge. She later gained a master’s degree in law from the Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris and then qualified as a New York attorney.
Tory allies say she showed ambition to become an MP from a young age – and had attended Conservative events in Harrow and canvassed with her parents.
In February 2018, she married Rael Braverman, a manager at Mercedes, at the House of Commons. They had their first child in 2019 and a second in 2021.
She was given her first ministerial job by Theresa May, when she was appointed a Brexit minister in 2018. She resigned after the then Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, walked out in disagreement over May’s proposed divorce deal with the European Union.
Boris Johnson brought her back into the fold, promoting her to a seat around the cabinet table as attorney general in 2020. She was made QC at the time of this appointment.
Braverman put herself forward to be prime minister this summer after Johnson stepped down. She was knocked out in the second round, but immediately supported Truss.
At Conservative party conference, Braverman told delegates it was her “dream” and “obsession” that one day she would as home secretary see a flight take off to Rwanda carrying people seeking refuge in the UK.
Her dream withered on Wednesday after a meeting in Downing Street. Braverman said she was standing down after sending an official and sensitive document from her personal email. Sources have claimed she was forced to go by the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
In a resignation letter, Braverman made public her criticisms of the current government’s immigration strategy. She wants to cut the numbers, while No 10 has wanted to allow in more foreign workers if it encourages growth.
“Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings,” she wrote.
Those criticisms, contained in her last act as the 43-day home secretary, may well form the basis of another Braverman leadership bid in the near future.
