Home Secretary Suella Braverman has left her role, with speculation that Grant Shapps is set to replace her - as Prime Minister Liz Truss tries to save her premiership, the Guardian has revealed this afternoon. The Prime Minister had been due to visit a defence technology company this afternoon but cleared her diary.
A Home Office source confirmed that Ms Braverman was out after the Prime Minister made a last-minute cancellation of a trip out of Westminster on Wednesday.
Ms Braverman has said she was resigning as Home Secretary after a “mistake” surrounding sending an official document from her personal email, as she criticised the “tumultuous time” under Liz Truss.
In her resignation letter, Suella Braverman admitted sending an “official document from my personal email”.
She said she sent the message to a “trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement, and with the aim of garnering support for government policy on migration”.
She acknowledged that constituted a “technical infringement of the rules”, the document was a draft written ministerial statement, and while much of it had already been briefed to MPs “nevertheless it is right for me to go”.
She said “the business of government relies upon people accepting responsibility for their mistakes” adding: “Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on as if everyone can’t see we have made them and hoping that things will magically come right is not serious politics.
“I have made a mistake; I accept responsibility; I resign.”
Ms Braverman's letter highlighted “concerns about the direction of this government”.
“It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time,” she said. “I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this Government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.”
The Prime Minister pulled out of a planned visit where she would have faced media questions on Wednesday afternoon as more Tories went public with concerns about her leadership. She made a public apology in the Commons earlier as she faced Prime Minister’s Questions for the first time since her economic plan was ditched by Hunt.
The Prime Minister reportedly spoke to Ms Braverman during a meeting in the House of Commons. The latest government shake-up comes less than a week after she was forced to sack Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor to stop an economic meltdown.
Ms Braverman is a figure-head of the right in the party and the exit of a former Tory leadership candidate will create further challenges for Ms Truss as she struggles to maintain her grip on power.
Ms Braverman was given the role of Home Secretary when Truss entered No 10 early last month. The Guardian said that former transport secretary Grant Shapps, a major backer of Rishi Sunak for the Tory leadership and a critic of Ms Truss, was being lined up to succeed Ms Braverman.
Ms Braverman, a former attorney general, only became home secretary on September 6 when Ms Truss brought her in to replace Priti Patel.
Her tenure as Home Secretary has been controversial, having accused Tory critics who successfully forced Ms Truss into U-turning over plans to scrap the top rate of income tax of a “coup”.
Mr Shapps was one of the leading voices urging the Prime Minister to backtrack on the widely-criticised plan during the Tory party conference earlier this month.
