London (The Hawk): Rishi Sunak, the UK's new Prime Minister, sparked outrage by re-appointing Indian-origin Suella Braverman as Home Secretary, just days after she resigned over a technical breach of government rules. Braverman, an outspoken critic of former Prime Minister Liz Truss' economic policies, resigned last week after violating email security rules. She also expressed concerns about Truss's government's direction in her resignation letter.
"Suella Braverman's appointment as Home Secretary just days after she was fired for a security breach does not smack of integrity, competence, professionalism, or sound politics. It's simply cynical manoeuvring. This PM is no better than the previous two "Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, tweeted about it. Braverman, the London-born daughter of a Goan father and a Tamil mother, has come out in support of Sunak, calling him the "only candidate who fits the bill and I am proud to support him."
Sunak appointed Braverman just hours after saying he wanted to lead the Conservative Party with "integrity, professionalism, and accountability." Sunak was chastised by Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who said, "Our national security and public safety are too important for this kind of chaos." "He said he wants his government to have 'integrity, professionalism, and accountability at every level,' yet he has just appointed Suella Braverman to be Home Secretary again, a week after she resigned for breaches of the Ministerial Code, security lapses, sending sensitive Government information through unauthorised personal channels, and weeks of non-stop public disagreements with other Cabinet Ministers," Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, was quoted as saying.
According to The Guardian, the move is widely viewed as "payback" for her endorsement of Sunak when Johnson threatened to run for president again. According to local media reports, questions have also been raised about her stance on migration control, which has elicited strong reactions even from members of her own party. Braverman believes that the UK's exit from the European Convention on Human Rights is the only way for her country to solve its immigration problems.
"My dream is to be on the front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda... That's my fixation "She made the remarks during a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference earlier this month. Back in India, where her parents are from, the news of Braverman's reappointment has dampened the initial euphoria over Sunak's rise to the position of UK Prime Minister, with his recent move eliciting sharp reactions from the Indian Twitterati. Braverman nearly derailed the India-UK Free Trade Agreement by expressing concern that the agreement would increase migration to the UK, despite the fact that Indians already constituted the largest group of visa overstayers. She blamed the riots in Leicester on uncontrolled migration into the UK and newcomers' failure to integrate.
(Inputs from Agencies)