Former British interior minister Suella Braverman, who was recently sacked, slammed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his leadership on Tuesday (Nov 14) in a letter, which also urged the prime minister to change course to avoid election defeat. She also criticised Sunak’s record on immigration and anti-Semitism.
Several controversies hampered Braverman’s tenure, however, her recent article published in the British daily The Times, in which she accused the police of pro-Palestine partiality, emerged to be the final nail in the coffin.
In the three-page letter addressed to Sunak which she posted on X, Braverman said: “Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time. You need to change course urgently.”
She accused Sunak of “equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest” over several policies, including cutting immigration and the teaching of gender in schools.
“You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies,” she wrote.
“Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises,” she added.
In the article, Braverman claimed that right-wing protesters were “rightly met with a stern response”, but the “pro-Palestinian mobs” were “largely ignored”.
The No. 10 office issued a statement which stated that Sunak has “full confidence in her”, despite the fact that she said that the police were applying “double standards” and “played favourites when it comes to demonstrators”.
But, in the recent cabinet reshuffle, she was sacked. The reshuffle brought back ex-prime minister David Cameron.
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Sunak’s refusal to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights as a means of advancing the programme was regarded as a “betrayal” by her.
“You opted instead for wishful thinking as a comfort blanket to avoid having to make hard choices. This irresponsibility has wasted time and left the country in an impossible position,” she wrote.
Braverman also said Sunak had failed to rise to the challenge of “vicious antisemitism and extremism” in London following Hamas’s Oct 7 attack on Israel.
She said his response to pro-Palestinian marches, including not banning them, had been “uncertain, weak and lacking in the qualities of leadership this country needs”.
(With inputs from agencies)
