‘Untameable’ troublemaker or ‘critical to holding Tories together – how do you solve a problem like Suella Braverman?
IT WAS supposed to be the week where Labour tore chunks out of each other over foreign policy, but unlucky general Rishi Sunak was last night gripped in his biggest rift yet as PM.
As the fanfare faded on a flopped King’s Speech, it was back to business as usual for the Tories: a public slanging match.
No10 have not been firing on all cylinders since their big reset plans on Net Zero, HS2 and smoking failed to register with weary voters.
A dark mood has descended on Downing Street as their legislative agenda for the next 12 months was greeted by a collective shrug.
As Tory peer Lord Jackson said yesterday: “Really, there was not much sausage and even less sizzle.”
And it seems more ambitious members of the Cabinet can smell the blood in the water.
Enter stage right: Suella Braverman.
The Home Secretary’s incendiary Times article lit up Westminster when it dropped on Wednesday evening, but Sunak’s already bruised team knew it was coming.
In accusing the cops of “playing favourites” with trendy left wing campaigners but being tougher on anyone else, Braverman risked pouring petrol on an already febrile relationship with Scotland Yard.
The cops had already turned down her suggestion of banning today’s anti-Israel march in London, but the piece risked all out war.
While Sunak was quick to disown the article on Thursday morning, emails passed to The Sun show his team were widely aware of its contents and had tried to tone it down.
The Ministerial Code states that all major interventions have to be approved by No10, and Sunak’s deputy chief of staff Will Tanner did tell the Home Office they were “happy for the HS to do an OpEd on protests for the Times.”
But the paper trail shows the aide suggesting some work was needed to get “into shape.”
When pleas to change some of the livelier parts of the piece fell on deaf ears, Tanner told the Home Office “this needs to be agreed in the normal way – I suggest we hold this?”
But it was an email back that said it was “too late” and had been sent to The Times that was seen as a deliberate middle finger.
Sources say the PM came pretty close to sacking Braverman on Thursday afternoon but cooler heads prevailed over fears of unleashing a massive internal civil war.
There were also concerns over giving Labour her scalp just hours after Sir Keir Starmer had called for her to go.
But the Home Secretary is not out of the woods yet.
Insiders say that it is still 50/50 that the PM does a reshuffle early next week – with a final decision unlikely to be made until after Remembrance Day commemorations on Sunday morning.
And wise hands say there is a 75 per cent chance that reshuffle ends with a new Home Secretary, despite the risk of a major backlash from the right of the party.
Last night those closest to Sunak were divided into three camps.
Firstly those that support what Suella had said and agreed that a tougher line should be taken generally on issues of protest and boats.
A second camp wants to get rid of her on ideological grounds because they believe she is genuinely too hard line.
A third camp wants to give her the boot for disloyalty and general mischief making, with the Chief Whip reporting back that mood is widely felt amongst MPs on the left of the party.
Critics of the Home Secretary are quick to say she is useless and doesn’t do enough – however her defenders argue everything she tries to do is blocked by a nervy and squeamish Prime Minister.
Wednesday night’s fireworks were far from the first time the pair have clashed since the PM unexpectedly resurrected her career last October.
In an apparent quid-pro-quo for her not backing Boris Johnson’s return and essentially handing Sunak the keys to No10, she got the job Liz Truss fired her from just eight days previously.
But ambitious Braverman has been a pain in the backside for successive PMs.
She turned the screws on Theresa May over Brexit and was one of the 28 “spartan” rebels who sunk her doomed deal.
As Boris Johnson clung on by his fingernails in 2021, the then Attorney General stunned by calling for her boss the PM to resign live on telly – and that she should replace him.
She accelerated Liz Truss’ departure by claiming she was wrong to u-turn on the mini-budget, before having to go over a security breach.
And now rinse and repeat under Sunak.
From punchy comments on the failings of multiculturalism and warnings of an immigration “hurricane”, to a speeding ticket scandal and wanting to take tents away from the homeless.
Critics believe Sunak did a deal with the devil to become leader and will have an untameable troublemaker until the day he cuts her loose.
Others maintain she is “critical” to holding together the already strained Tory party – and any chance of keeping some of the 2019 coalition of voters that put them in power.
Ex-No10 pollster James Johnson told the Sun: “The target voters at the next election are socially conservative, patriotic, and deeply concerned about the impact of immigration on Britain.
“If there were more convincing figures in the Conservative Party making her arguments, maybe she would be dispensable.
“But the reality is there is not.”
But could it ironically be the lawyers she is so quick to attack who save Suella in the end?
Amid all the turmoil in No10, the Supreme Court announced that next Wednesday they will rule on whether the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme is legal.
This massive moment could not have come at a better – or worse – time.
While a reshuffle on the eve of such a big moment would look a little strange, if they win, ministers think they will be on the front foot on small boats and the weather will change.
But lose, and some think the Home Secretary will resign to lead the resistance against the Human Rights Act that is currently grounding the planes.
“She would never go quietly,” warns one ally.
No wonder “how do you solve a problem like Suella?” is the question keeping Sunak and his team occupied this weekend.