Whether the home secretary, Suella Braverman, keeps her job is up to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak. That is in keeping with his prerogative powers to organise the composition of the government as he sees fit. But what happens when ministers hardly hide their disagreements or make a habit of defying the norms of behaviour expected of office-holders? That is the place where Ms Braverman seems to be heading – and she’s been there before.
Last October, Ms Braverman was forced to resign as home secretary after confessing to a “technical” breach of the ministerial code. Her departure had been a long time coming. Ms Braverman had publicly contradicted her government’s more liberal stance on immigration. She left office a day before the Truss administration fell. Mr Sunak reappointed Ms Braverman to the Home Office less than a week later. Last December, MPs on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee warned that this dishonourable affair set a “dangerous” precedent: “To allow this to take place does not inspire confidence in the integrity of government, nor offer much incentive to proper conduct in future”. Those words seem prescient given what is happening now, on Mr Sunak’s watch.
