Sacked UK interior minister Braverman launches scathing attack on Sunak: 'Someone needs to be honest'

Former British interior minister Suella Braverman, who was recently sacked, slammed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his leadership on Tuesday (Nov 14) in letter that she shared publicly, which also urged the prime minister to change course to avoid election defeat. In a sign of yet another rebellion brewing in ruling Conservative Party against Sunak, she also criticised his record on immigration and antisemitism. 

Several controversies hampered Braverman's tenure, but her recent article published in the British daily The Times, in which she accused the police of pro-Palestine partiality during protest rallies in the wake of Israel-Hamas war, was the final nail in the coffin. 

In a 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." 

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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 had claimed that right-wing protesters were "rightly met with a stern response", but the "pro-Palestinian mobs" were "largely ignored". 

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No 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's office, issued a statement at that time, stating that Sunak has "full confidence in her", despite the fact that she said the police were applying "double standards" and "played favourites when it comes to demonstrators". 

She was sacked nevertheless in a recent cabinet reshuffle, with James Cleverly, who was the foreign secretary, replacing her.

The shakeup also brought back ex-prime minister David Cameron as foreign minister. 

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Sunak's refusal to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights as a means of advancing the controversial plan to move migrants to Rwanda 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.

In her broadside, Braverman also said Sunak had failed to rise to the challenge of "vicious antisemitism and extremism" in London following Hamas' October 7 terror 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)