Who Is Suella Braverman, the UK Home Minister Who Was Sacked Twice? – News18

Suella Braverman, the former UK home secretary, was sacked twice in a matter of 1 year, 22 days. The daughter of migrants of Indian-origin was sacked on Monday by her boss, Indian-origin Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, for “undermining the authority” of the Prime Minister and making comments that challenged public confidence in London police.

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Braverman earlier this month penned an article where she accused the police officers of being lenient towards pro-Palestinian activists taking out rallies in London following the breakout of the Israel-Hamas war when they broke the law, but were being stern in their response when far-right activist broke the laws.

She did acknowledge that there were miscreants on both sides but her opinion piece in a UK-newspaper may have “undermined the operational independence of – and public confidence in – the police”. The article was released days before the armistice day events which clashed with the 300,000-strong march seeking ceasefire in Palestine.

The UK government’s challenges to the migration policy and its lack of confidence that it may not get the UK Supreme Court’s backing on the government’s plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda also may have played a role.

However, this is not the first time she has been accused of undermining the Prime Minister’s authority. In October 2022, she was fired while serving under former UK prime minister Liz Truss for sending an official document from her personal email to a fellow MP, which was a breach of ministerial code.

However, a week later, she was back in the office as Truss resigned after losing out to Sunak

The Rise of Braverman

Suella Braverman was born Sue-Ellen Fernandes in west London to Christie Fernandes, a Kenyan of Christian Goan origin, and Uma Fernandes, a Mauritian of Indian origin, who arrived in the UK in the 1960s.

She came from a home which backed the Conservative Party and mother Christie had unsuccessfully contested for parliament and was a councillor. She went to Heathfield school in outer London where teachers shortened her name to Suella.

She studied law at Queens’ College, Cambridge, becoming president of the university Conservative Association. She also studied in France at the Sorbonne.

Suella Braverman dedicated herself to her career in law after she passed the New York bar exam and practised law in the UK and the US.

House of Commons Entry

Suella Braverman entered the House of Commons during the prime ministerial tenure of David Cameron, by winning the constituency of Fareham, in Hampshire. She became a close ally of hard Brexiteers within the Conservative Party known as the European Research Group, which also adored and helped former UK prime minister Boris Johnson’s ascent to power.

Her dedication to the right within the right was rewarded by Johnson who appointed her as a junior Brexit minister and then also rose to the position of attorney general.

She married Rael Braverman, a manager at Mercedes-Benz, in 2018, whom she describes as a “proud Jew and a Zionist”.

As a politician, Braverman made cutting down illegal immigration, a major objective of the Tory party, her main focus. She faced flak when she said she “dreamt of” refugees being sent to Rwanda as part of the new refugee policy, whose legality the UK apex court is examining.

Her detractors and admirers agree that her closeness to the ESG is not simply to ensure the far-right within the Tories keep on backing her but because she needs them to usurp whosoever comes in the way of her dream to become the Tory party chief.

Yvette Cooper, the Labour politician who is the shadow home-secretary, told UK-based news media outlets that Braverman is less interested in her day job and more interested in running “an endless Tory leadership campaign”.