Suella Braverman accuses Rishi Sunak of ‘manifestly and repeatedly’ failing to deliver on key policies

Suella Braverman has accused Rishi Sunak of “manifestly and repeatedly” failing to deliver on key policies.  

The letter penned by the former home secretary to the prime minister comes a day after she was sacked, which prompted a shock return to government for former Prime Minister David Cameron.  

In the letter, Braverman said that she agreed to join Sunak’s government after being given “firm assurances” on key policy areas.  

Those policy areas were, she said: reducing migration in line with the Conservative 2019 manifesto; “stopping the boats” by excluding the operation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act, along with other international laws; delivering the Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law Bills; and issuing statutory guidance to schools that protected biological sex, safeguarded single-sex spaces, and informed parents on what children are being taught.  

She said her attempts to deliver these promises were “met with equivocation, disregard, and a lack of interest” from the prime minister, adding that he “failed” on every one of those policies and that he “never had any interest in keeping your promises”.  

Braverman said that she “trusted” Sunak and described going back on his promise to stop the boats by doing “whatever it takes” as a “betrayal”.   

She also told the prime minister that should the government lose a key legal ruling, he will have “wasted a year” on the Illegal Migration Act, which addresses small boats, warning that the government will “arrive back at square one”.  

She added: "Worse than this, your magical thinking - believing that you can will your way through this without upsetting polite opinion - has meant you have failed to prepare any sort of credible 'Plan B'."  

The former home secretary said her back-up plan received no reply from Number 10.  

Braverman added: "I can only surmise that this is because you have no appetite for doing what is necessary, and therefore no real intention of fulfilling your pledge to the British people."