Rishi Sunak has been accused of immediately breaking his pledge to restore government integrity by bringing Suella Braverman back as home secretary in exchange for a key endorsement for his leadership bid.
Coming under pressure in his first prime minister’s questions, Sunak did not deny that civil servants had raised concerns about one of the most senior roles handed out in his cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.
Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, questioned Sunak’s commitment to probity and professionalism after Braverman was brought back into the government despite “deliberately pinging around sensitive Home Office documents” from a personal email account.
Starmer said Sunak was “so weak he’s done a grubby deal trading national security because he was scared to lose another leadership election”, vocalising a concern some Conservative MPs have raised privately over the past 24 hours.
Braverman was forced to quit last week for breaching the ministerial code, and three days later, after Liz Truss’s government had collapsed, endorsed Sunak. The move was seen as a crucial win for Sunak, allowing him to demonstrate he had support from the right of the party.
The Sunday Times had reported that Braverman emailed cabinet papers from her ministerial email account to a private Gmail one, before forwarding these to a backbench colleague and a staffer she believed was his wife. The paper said she claimed she made the mistake partly due to the fact it happened at about 4am, but that in fact the message was sent several hours later.
Starmer asked Sunak if she had been right to resign last week, and said the home secretary’s integrity and professionalism should be “beyond question”.
The prime minister said Braverman had made an error of judgment and recognised her mistake, adding: “That’s why I was delighted to welcome her back into a united cabinet that brings experience and stability to the heart of government.”
He said Braverman would be focused on “cracking down on criminals” and defending the UK’s borders, and claimed Labour was soft on crime and in favour of “unlimited immigration”.
Asked if officials had raised concerns about the appointment, given the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, was said to have been furious, Sunak dodged the question and said he had already “addressed the issue”. Starmer said the evasion showed that while there was a “new Tory at the top”, Sunak had demonstrated he would put the “party first and country second”.
Other attacks levied at Sunak during PMQs included raising his wife’s former non-dom tax status, which she was able to use as an Indian citizen. Starmer said abolishing that method of tax relief would generate £3.2bn a year.
But the prime minister batted away the suggestion, saying he was glad Labour “finally realised that spending does need to be paid for” and promised to “protect the most vulnerable” when “difficult decisions” were made at the autumn statement next month.
Starmer also raised a video of Sunak speaking to party activists that emerged over the summer, showing him bragging about undoing government funding formulas that “shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas”.
Sunak said there were deprived areas in rural and coastal communities, as well as across the south-east, adding: “Leadership is not selling fairytales, it is confronting challenges.”
Starmer urged Sunak to call a general election and “let working people have their say”.
Among the political malaise, there was a tribute from Starmer to Sunak for being the first person of Indian origin to become prime minister of the UK. The Labour leader said it was a “significant moment” and Britain was “a place where people of all races and beliefs can fulfil their dreams”.
