If Suella Braverman delayed acting on her confidentiality breach, is she in big trouble – or Rishi Sunak?
Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak: he thought the economy would be his biggest problem but instead, she is.
It’s looking bad for Suella Braverman – despite all the good words put in for her by Rishi Sunak and Michael Gove and whoever else.
The BBC has seen an email sent from Braverman’s personal account on the day she had to resign for sending confidential information to the wrong person from her personal account.
In this email, she appears to tell the recipient of that message to “delete and ignore” it.
Braverman has said, according to the BBC,
“As soon as I realised my mistake I rapidly reported this on official channels.”
But if she emailed someone else before reporting it, then this is not true. Indeed, the BBC reckons she delayed taking any official action for several hours.
Fellow Cabinet minister, the Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove, told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that asking the recipient to delete and ignore the email was “quite proper” and “standard practice”, and that it would be inappropriate to “rush to judgement”.
His words ring false.
It might be “proper” and “standard” to tell the wrong recipient of confidential information to delete and ignore it, but in a situation in which the sender has delayed alerting the authorities for more than four hours, This Writer (for one) thinks it is entirely appropriate to form a judgement.
It seems clear that an inquiry is now urgently required, and Braverman should be relieved of her duties as Home Secretary while it takes place.
But Sunak is unsafe whatever he does.
The circumstances may persuade her supporters in the far-right ERG (European Research Group) wing of the Conservative Party that it is impossible to keep Braverman – which might be something that Sunak would appreciate.
Let’s face it, the ERG members are all somewhat extreme, and losing their representative in the Cabinet makes Sunak’s government look more reasonable.
But it seems likely that someone deliberately handed the BBC the damning email, which suggests a plan to discredit Braverman and have her ejected from the Cabinet. That would upset the other ERG members and could destabilise Sunak’s government.
Whatever happens, ERG members – including Braverman – will want to know how the evidence against her came to light and will want revenge.
It seems clear that someone is storing up problems for Sunak to face in the future – no matter what he does.
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