The dreadful conditions at the Manston asylum seeker processing centre in Kent, combined with serious questions surrounding Rishi Sunak’s decision to reappoint Suella Braverman as home secretary, reveal a Conservative government whose immigration and asylum policies have failed. Opposition to immigration, much of it motivated by xenophobia, was weaponised by the Eurosceptic right to promote its aim of leaving the EU.
In Ms Braverman, who was appointed home secretary by Liz Truss before being reappointed by Mr Sunak, the anti-immigration wing of the party found a powerful advocate. With her personal enthusiasm for the government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, her row with Ms Truss over a proposal for new visas, and close relationship with hardliners on her party’s backbenches, Ms Braverman has escalated anti-migrant rhetoric beyond its already fevered pitch. The breaches of the ministerial code that she has admitted ought to have barred her from reappointment. As civil servants and their unions have pointed out, Home Office staffers have been sacked for breaking similar rules.
