Home Secretary Suella Braverman has insisted there was nothing market sensitive in the draft written ministerial statement (WMS) she sent from her private email address to Tory backbencher Sir John Hayes.
Ms Braverman has given further details of the breach of the ministerial code which triggered her resignation as home secretary under Liz Truss.
In a letter to the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee’s chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson, Ms Braverman apologised for the breach.
She said she had apologised to Rishi Sunak when she was reappointed as Home Secretary when he entered No 10 and publicly repeated that apology.
“In my appointment discussion with the new Prime Minister, I raised this mistake and apologised to him, and would like to do so again here,” she said.
“I also gave the Prime Minister assurances that I would not use my personal email for official business and reaffirmed my understanding of and adherence to the Ministerial Code.”
She said former prime minister Liz Truss had “specifically” asked her to engage with parliamentary colleagues to discuss the content of the planned WMS.
The draft WMS consisted of “high-level proposals for liberalising our migration rules”, including “increasing the number of low-skilled foreign workers, as well as general plans for controlling illegal migration”.
Much of the document had already been briefed to MPs – including Sir John – “at the request” of Ms Truss, although Ms Braverman acknowledged that “some sentences” had not been fully agreed by all departments.
Ms Braverman said: “I want the Home Affairs Select Committee to be reassured on the very important point about the nature of the document that I shared by mistake.
“The draft WMS did not contain any information relating to national security, the intelligence agencies, cyber security or law enforcement.
“It did not contain details of any particular case work. It did not contain any market-sensitive data as all the data contained in the document was already in the public domain. It was not classified as SECRET or TOP SECRET.”
Ms Braverman said that between September 6 and October 19 she had sent official documents from her Government email to her personal address on six occasions.
She said that was on occasions when she was conducting meetings virtually or “related to public lines to take in interviews”.
“None of the documents in question concerned national security, intelligence agency or cyber security matters, and did not pose any risk to national security,” she said.
“None of the documents were classified as SECRET or TOP SECRET.”
Ms Braverman said the Home Office review “confirmed that I had never used my Government email to send any information to external recipients outside of government”.
Other than on October 19, the event which triggered her resignation, “I have not used my personal email account to send official Home Office documents to other people outside of government”.
Home Affairs Select Committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson told Times Radio that Suella Braverman needs to come to the House of Commons to explain her position.
She told Times Radio: “I think she needs to come today to the House of Commons. I don’t think she needs to be summoned.
“I think she needs to decide she’s coming herself and she’s going to make a statement and deal with all of these issues and questions that have been rising up over the last few weeks since she was reappointed.
“She’s got to deal with this because until this is dealt with, she can’t get on and do the job of Home Secretary.”
