On Monday, British Home Secretary Suella Braverman accepted that she had sent official documents to her personal email six times, less than a month after she was forced to resign under now-former Prime Minister (PM) Liz Truss for sending an official document from her personal e-mail.
Braverman, who was reinstated to the position after PM Rishi Sunak’s appointment, said that she had committed the breaches between 6 September and 10 October to read the emails while on video conferences.
After evading questions about reports of the breaches in the Parliament last week, she admitted her mistake on Monday in a letter to the chair of the home affairs committee, Diana Johnson, in which she apologised for her “errors of judgement.”
BREAKING: Suella Braverman admits that she forwarded work emails to personal phone SIX times.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 31, 2022
She tells home affairs committee in a letter that none of these were secret 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/yGhn1kW3Ks
Nevertheless, she claimed that the documents were “not classified as secret or top secret.” According to Braverman, the emails did not concern “national security, intelligence agency or cybersecurity matters and did not pose any risk to national security.” Furthermore, she clarified that a home office inquiry had confirmed that she had not sent “any information to external recipients outside of government.”
The Home Secretary also highlighted that she had asked “security experts” to clarify “what constitutes appropriate use of government and personal IT.”
Under former PM Truss, Braverman was forced to resign after she violated security protocol and ministerial code by sending a draft written ministerial statement to Conservative backbencher John Hayes and Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Percy’s team from her personal e-mail.
The document contained “high-level proposals for liberalising” migration rules by “increasing the number of low-skilled foreign workers” and “controlling illegal migration.”
Braverman claimed that she informed officials about the breach “as soon as [she] realised [her] mistake.” Contrary to her claim, however, BBC reported that Braverman sent the email at 7.25 AM and was informed by Percy’s staff that the document was sent to her “in error” at around 8.30 AM. She urged the staff member to delete the email at 10 AM and only informed cabinet secretary Simon Case about the breach at 2 PM.
My letter to the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/TaWO1PMOF2
— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 19, 2022
This time around, however, Braverman has not provided any indication that she will resign, despite facing criticism for not mentioning these additional breaches while tendering her resignation last month.
To this end, MPs have called on the Home Secretary to tender her resignation once again. Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said that as Braverman “has admitted to breaking the rules on an industrial scale ”she must “resign now,” failing which she will be putting the Conservative party’s interest “ahead of this country’s security.”
Similarly, Diana Johnson urged Braverman to explain her position to the House of Commons before she gets on with her duties as Home Secretary.
Sunak, too, has been criticised for turning a blind eye to the controversy and reappointing her as Home Secretary despite the concerning breaches. Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper from the Labour Party opined that the latest incident merely adds “to the serious list of questions that we now have about the reckless reappointment of Suella Braverman to be home secretary,” asserting that it “goes to the heart of Rishi Sunak’s error of judgment.”
Michael Gove says Suella Braverman immediately owned up to her "mistake" and then informed officials.
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 30, 2022
The BBC then shows him a leaked email showing her asking a recipient to "delete the message and ignore" it, hours before officials were eventually told. #LauraKuenssberg pic.twitter.com/3fDVQTI2Il
Responding to opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s questions on the issue, Sunak previously said that Braverman had accepted her mistake. In fact, after Braverman sent the letter to Johnson, Sunak’s spokesperson noted that the current PM retains “full confidence” in his Home Secretary.
He said, “I think the prime minister feels this sets out a detailed account of what happened and responds to some of the interest in this, and that the home secretary is providing a full account.”
Braverman has also been on the receiving end of criticism for her comments and stance on immigration, particularly the migrants coming after crossing the English Channel. She has also been accused of ignoring legal advice on the concerning conditions of a migrant facility in Kent, which has seen several incidents of violent clashes and disease outbreaks. Reports said she was advised to shift the migrants to hotels or other accommodations after 24 hours.
Disgusted to hear Suella Braverman say there's an "invasion on our southern coast", just a day after a migrant detention centre was fire-bombed.
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) October 31, 2022
Language like this – portraying migrants as "invaders" – whips-up hate & spreads division.
She's totally unfit to be Home Secretary.
She has further been accused of ignoring legal concerns about prolonged detentions at the Manston facility, which houses 4,000 migrants despite the centre having a capacity of merely 1,600.
An MP from her own Conservative Party, Roger Gale, remarked that the Home Office is “deliberately” allowing migrants to live in squalid conditions.
Braverman, however, said in the House of Commons: “What I have refused to do is to prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay.” She further said that the immigration system is broken and called the influx of asylum seekers from the English Channel an “invasion.”
While serving as Truss’s Home Secretary, Braverman also caused the UK-India Free Trade Agreement to be pushed to the “verge of collapse” after she criticised Indian migrants for overstaying their visas. Sunak, however, has stressed on the need to “make good progress in negotiations” to finalise the FTA and strengthen the two countries’ security, defence and economic partnership.