Last week I read with interest that delusion has a new form — manifestation or “positive thinking”, as it was known. The piece I read was based on a trend from TikTok (of course), where young people are thinking or saying things that just by the power of thought and belief they may actually achieve something positive. As a trend for teenagers this is cute. As a belief system for politicians, it is no laughing matter in the slightest.
Of course, I am talking about Suella Braverman. Or as she’s also known, the delusional former home secretary who, before she was sacked yesterday, not only believed that she was unsackable but that she would be the next leader of the Conservative Party. I have no idea who made her believe she could ever become leader — or why the media kept running with it. I have found myself, at dinner or at drinks with friends who feared for the future of their party, giving them a reality check and telling them there is no way she will become leader.
I resigned as the Home Office special adviser for tackling violence against women and girls last year because I could not work with Braverman. She was a woman who was not just out of her depth, but also beyond irresponsible. Well before she said homelessness was a “lifestyle choice” and accused the police of favouritism, Braverman had stepped into the Home Office and said that some women and girls who claimed they had been trafficked into the country were “gaming the system” to get asylum.
As a trend for teenagers, positive manifestation is cute. As a belief system for politicians it is no joke at all
Beyond the inhumanity of this statement, it also showed that she had no idea how the legislation aimed at ending modern-day slavery worked. This was something she was actually now in charge of — and as I read more and more of what she was saying about an issue I cared about, I knew I had to quit and challenge this woman from the outside. I had hoped that challenging her would be easier than it was because, when I resigned, countless Conservatives messaged to congratulate me. They also expressed their disappointment that she had been given such a senior role.
Braverman made this country unsafe. Not satisfied with awful language about refugees in her tenure as home secretary, she thought she’d also light a match under the fabric of cohesion in the UK. From her assertion that multiculturalism had failed here, to her article ahead of Saturday’s march in which her inflammatory remarks led to the EDL taking to the streets of London and attacking police. Let us not forget how multiculturalism actually works in this country — Braverman, a woman of Asian heritage, was the home secretary to our first non-white PM in modern history and this was something not talked about much because it was really not a “big deal”. That is what multicultural Britain looks like.
As home secretary, Suella was a nightmare. So to think she will mount some kind of comeback campaign from the backbenches, let alone be leader of the party, is what I call the Oxford dictionary definition of delusion.
In firing Suella and replacing her with James Cleverly, a man who as Foreign Secretary has delivered for the UK on the international stage during a difficult period, the Prime Minister has finally shown that he is ready to bring about change.
The Conservative Party has been a mess since Brexit and they have thought that they had to lean towards the Right to stay in power, but that’s not true. Most Conservatives and undecided voters are moderate, centrist and socially liberal.
This is why the Tories have lost most of their by-elections to Lib Dems or New Labour-type candidates. As much as the appalling Suella and her supporters will have you believe that people of this country are to the Right, that is wrong. This is a tolerant and inclusive country where hate might make headlines but it’s not what the people believe. And I am glad Rishi has finally kind of seen that. I say “kind of” because the appointment of an anti-woke czar is beyond parody — but that’s for another column.
