United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday morning by sacking his Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, after days of speculation over her job since it emerged a controversial newspaper article attacking the Metropolitan Police was published without clearance from her boss, according to reports coming out from Downing Street.
The 43-year-old minister Braverman, is an Indian-origin Cabinet minister, whose parents migrated to Britain from Mauritius and Kenya.
The Cabinet minister has repeatedly courted controversy in her senior UK Cabinet role, most recently by accusing the Met Police of “playing favourites” when tackling aggressive Israel-Gaza protests in an article in The Times.
Braverman had reportedly criticised the police for being too lenient on pro-Palestenian supporters which allegedly led to inflamed protests by right-wing protestors.
Sunak had been under pressure from sections of his Conservative Party as well as faced attacks from the Opposition for allowing her to continue in her job after she went ahead with the article in a perceived breach of the ministerial code.
“Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter-protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage,” Braverman said in a statement on Sunday evening following far-right violence during the protests over the weekend.
“The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Antisemitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling,” she said.
However, her intervention in support of the police may have come a little too late to save her job in the end.
(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
