The Beef Between Suella Braverman And Rishi Sunak Fully Explained
Rishi Sunak took over the prime ministerial chalice in October 2022. He inherited the chaos and disarray of being the third prime minister in seven weeks. Oh, and a serious cost of living crisis. So, Sunak needed a team he could count on to have his back. Suella Braverman definitely wasn't #TeamRishi, though.
Sunak has stayed in office for a year, which is pretty good given Britain's recent track record. Sunak's fared way better than his predecessor, Liz Truss. The Daily Star live-streamed a head of lettuce (in a tiny blond wig) to see if it would outlive Truss' premiership. Spoiler alert: the iceberg won, remaining intact after her 49 days in power. Boris Johnson's PM career was hardly better. It lasted longer, and he even managed to get voted into office in 2019. Still, endless scandals, controversies, mismanagement, ethics concerns, and the now-infamous "party-gate" left even the racy affair Truss had with a member of parliament in the shade, resulting in Johnson checking out of 10 Downing in September 2022.
Sunak is viewed by many as a vanilla and uninspiring prime minister. The United Kingdom is heading for a general election, and the smart money is on the Tories getting a right royal thrashing. The Daily Express reports that British bookies are predicting a Labour Party landslide, and they always seem to know better than official pollsters. So, with Tory power hanging in the balance, you'd think party members would unite. Suella Braverman, though? Not so much.
Tumbling house of cards
Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister the same way as other British politicos of late; basically, he was the best choice of a mediocre bunch. Sunak didn't surf into 10 Downing Street on a giant wave of support. So, he needed to secure as much clout as possible to remain numero uno. Suella Braverman, as a darling of the far right, was seen as a sure bet to bring the Brexit crowd into the fold.
The Guardian reports Liz Truss had sacked Braverman "just days" before Sunak moved into her still-warm Downing Street bed. Still, he didn't hesitate to appoint Braverman home secretary, as he was desperate to avoid allowing Boris Johnson to throw his mop back into the ring for the second Tory leadership battle of 2022.
However, it soon became apparent that Sunak had bet on the wrong parliamentary pony. Braverman's support among the Conservative Party's far right is undisputed. But Sunak hadn't calculated quite how much support she had and how willing she was to leverage it to advance her own political agenda. Poor Rishi has clearly never watched an episode of "House of Cards." Per The Financial Times, Braverman takes a leaf out of the Trump book of politicking, always deciding on the more outrageous and controversial, the better. Oh, and never, ever backing down or apologizing. Braverman launched a nuclear warhead at Sunak on November 8, with a scathing Times op-ed mauling the Metropolitan Police.
Burning down the house
Suella Braverman did what she does best: she used a catastrophic situation to cause controversy and increase her currency as a right-wing darling. Braverman's Times' op-ed threw a lit match onto an already incendiary issue, attacking the Metropolitan Police's handling of pro-Palestine protests, using inflammatory language such as "valorization of terrorists" and "hate marchers." The Guardian reports that London Mayor Sadiq Khan blamed Braverman's divisive diatribe for acting as a rallying call to far-right protestors to violently infiltrate peaceful pro-Palestine protests.
Per The Independent, the cabinet rejected the op-ed piece Braverman wrote. Still, she ignored their suggested changes and published it as it was, causing intense embarrassment to the government. Rishi Sunak was thrown between a rock and a hard place — exactly where Braverman wanted him. If he fired her, he'd lose her far-right supporters. If he didn't, he'd be seen as weak and Islamaphobic. Sunak procrastinated but eventually fired Braverman, which she seemed delighted about as it fit her agenda perfectly.
"Britain is at a turning point in our history and faces a threat of radicalization and extremism in a way not seen for 20 years," she wrote in a letter, as noted by Sky. "I regret to say that your response has been uncertain, weak, and lacking in the qualities of leadership that this country needs." Meanwhile, Braverman continues claiming homelessness is a "lifestyle choice" and that Sunak must completely ignore "the entirety" of European Human Rights and dispatch asylum seekers to Rwanda.