The new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has started his mandate with a first controversy concerning the appointment of his cabinet, for which he has brought back Suella Braverman as head of the Home Office, despite the fact that she had resigned from the same post a week earlier due to an alleged error in the sending of official information.
Braverman left Liz Truss’ cabinet on October 18, just two days before the head of government announced her own departure. The minister then attributed her resignation to a bureaucratic problem, but the communiqué included allusions to the political chaos that was taking place at the time.
Thus, she stressed the importance of assuming mistakes and stepping aside, without waiting for problems to be solved «by magic», implying that the departure had a strong component of discomfort towards Truss’ management, something that Braverman has never acknowledged orally.
With Sunak’s arrival at Downing Street, Braverman has returned to Interior. «We will work hard to control our borders, maintain security and keep the streets safe,» she declared in her first reaction, «honored» to regain the lost post.
Downing Street sources justify the decision to the BBC on the basis of Braverman’s capabilities and Sunak’s intention to put political criteria first when putting together his team. However, doubts about the integrity of the appointment have peppered the political talk shows this Wednesday, even before the first Council of Ministers.
Foreign Minister James Claverly emphasized that Braverman has «very recent experience in the Home Office» and wanted to settle any debate. According to Claverly, his colleague has already turned the page «by saying she made a mistake, apologizing for that mistake and resigning.»
The opposition, however, has begun to bring out the political artillery against Braverman and, by extension, Sunak. A Labor spokeswoman, Bridget Phillipson, has suggested that there may have been a «dirty deal» between the two for which the prime minister owed some form of compensation to the former minister.
The Liberal Democrats also believe that Braverman’s return calls into question the «integrity» promised by Sunak. Alistair Carmichael, the party’s home affairs minister, has called for an independent inquiry into the appointment to determine whether there were promises «behind closed doors» involved.
