Tory MP Steve Baker has said Downing Street told him Liz Truss would like to reappoint Suella Braverman as home secretary “in the new year”.
Ms Braverman dramatically quit the prime minister’s cabinet on Wednesday with a swipe at the direction of her government and has since been replaced by Grant Shapps.
But Mr Baker, who is MP for Wycombe, said that he was told by No 10 that the “prime minister would like to be able to reappoint Suella in the new year”.
He told Times Radio: “In the course of doing this media round, which I was asked to do by Number 10, I did speak with Number 10 and they invited me to say that the prime minister would like to reappoint Suella in the new year. So that is a measure of the resilience of the prime minister.”
He said the surprising claim was “not merely a gesture and a not a commitment” but insisted “the prime minister is willing to consider reappointing Suella”.
Ms Braverman quit as she admitted inadvertently sending a sensitive document from her personal email.
But in her pointed resignation letter, she also criticised Ms Truss’s government and declared that she had “serious concerns” over plans to renege on manifesto commitments.
“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,” she wrote.
Mr Baker backed Ms Braverman in the leadership contest. Both MPs are towards the right of the Tory party and both have been chairman of the European Research Group, a group of Brexiteer MPs in parliament .
Ms Braverman’s resignation reportedly came after she clashed with Ms Truss in a heated argument about the government’s immigration policy.
The Daily Mail reported that the pair had a 90-minute “shouting match” in which the former home secretary accused the prime minister of breaking key pledges.
Ms Braverman was particularly unhappy about plans to relax immigration rules in order to boost economic growth, something she reportedly branded “insane”.
Her replacement, Mr Shapps, who openly plotted against Ms Truss.
The Home Office was taken by surprise by Ms Braverman’s resignation and one source told The Independent that staff’s initial reaction was “what the f***?”
“The thing that struck us about her is she talked a lot but didn’t deliver on anything,” he said.
“Stability is what staff want, it would be quite nice to have someone quite boring who’s not briefing to the press every five minutes.
