From the moment Suella Braverman joined Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, she has been a cause of controversy. Sunak’s decision to appoint her as home secretary, just days after Liz Truss sacked her from the great office of state over an email breach, was read by the party as a sign that he needed her in order to get to No 10. Without Braverman’s endorsement during the second leadership contest of 2022, Sunak would have struggled to get the right of the party on board; it would, instead, have turned to Boris Johnson and aided his attempt at a comeback. Had Johnson had more support among MPs he could have chosen to stay in the race; the decision then would have gone to the party membership, and British politics could look very different to the way it does now.
This history means that since that endorsement, every scandal or row involving the home secretary is seen through the prism of Sunak’s strength or weakness. Did Braverman avoid investigation by the No 10 ethics adviser over a speeding ticket row because Sunak couldn’t risk it? Did her speech at a Washington DC thinktank on the “dogma of multiculturalism” come as a surprise to Downing Street? Is the home secretary freelancing on policy because she thinks she is unsackable? Not all of this is the case – but the fact such questions are so frequently asked points to the problem.
