Did Rishi Sunak ever need to appoint Suella Braverman in the first place? As Braverman claimed in her resignation letter, there seems to be a “general agreement” in that her support was “pivotal” in winning Sunak his premiership. But I was struck by a piece by Professor Tim Bale at Queen Mary University of London, which suggests this claim may have been exaggerated.
At the time — October last year — the consensus was that a Right-wing rump of the party was holding the leadership race hostage. The idea was that without Braverman’s backing for Sunak, they would ensure the election of Boris Johnson. But Professor Bale notes that Sunak’s eventual supporters only included seven of one group of 28 Right-wing MPs, the so-called European Research Group which voted against Theresa May’s Brexit deal on all three occasions — and only 10 of another group of 30 “anti-woke” MPs. Not enough to ensure a decisive victory — not quite enough to stop Johnson. The group may not have been so pivotal after all.
