Suella Braverman branded 'poison-spreading headline-grabber' in brutal interview

07 December 2023 , 09:58

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Suella Braverman urged Rishi Sunak to change course on Rwanda (Image: UK PARLIAMENT/AFP via Getty Imag)

Suella Braverman was quizzed on whether she is a "poison-spreading headline-grabber" during a bruising BBC interview.

As the Tories descended into open warfare over Rishi Sunak's Rwanda deportation plans, the ex-Home Secretary urged the PM to "change course". She said his current strategy to attempt to bypass last month's Supreme Court ruling was "destined to fail" putting the Conservatives in a "perilous situation".

But in a brutal exchange BBC host Nick Robinson told her: “When you’re on the radio and the television, Suella Braverman, you talk about substance, you talk quite reasonably.

"When I ask you questions about tough language, you sort of laugh at me as if I’m the one talking about a Conservative death wish. “You’ve condemned the leader of your party as uncertain, weak and lacking in leadership, you’ve said he never had any intention of keeping his promises, you’ve accused him of betrayal and wishful thinking.

“You’ve attacked lawyers, judges, civil servants, the head of the Metropolitan Police, people who are worried about deaths in Gaza, you’ve attacked the homeless, you’ve attacked migrants as being part of an invasion.

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The Radio 4 presenter then asked the Cabinet Minister: "Isn't the truth you're a headline grabber who does it by spreading poison, even within your own party?" Mrs Braverman, who last month was sacked as Home Secretary, replied: “The truth is that when I served as home secretary I sought to be honest - honest to the British people, honest for the British people and sometimes honesty is uncomfortable.

“But I’m not going to shy away from telling people how it is and from plain speaking and if that upsets polite society then I’m sorry about that. “The point is that we need to be honest, we need to be clear-eyed about the situation right now. We can’t keep failing the British people.”

Last night the Immigration Minister quit in fury last in a major blow to the PM's emergency legislation seeking to to bypass a Supreme Court's ruling last month.Robert Jenrick - a long-time ally of the Prime Minister - announced his resignation just hours after the Government published its new bill on Rwanda.

In a brutal resignation letter, he told the PM he couldn't stay in post when he had "such strong disagreements with the direction of the Government's policy on immigration." He branded Mr Sunak's bill "a triumph of hope over experience" which would be subject to a "merry-go-round of legal challenges which risk paralysing the scheme and negating its intended deterrent."

Ashley Cowburn