Andrew Marr: Reappointing Braverman is a political mistake Sunak can and should fix

27 October 2022, 18:12

Reappointing Suella Braverman as Home Secretary is a political mistake Rishi Sunak can and should fix, Andrew Marr has said.

Opening LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, the presenter said reappointing Ms Braverman had wrecked Mr Sunak's "fresh start" as PM but the "whopper of a mistake" could still be sorted.

"Sometimes in politics you make mistakes and there's no going back – the mini-Budget’s an obvious example," Andrew said.

"But sometimes in politics you make mistakes from which you can, and should, retreat.

"The reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary is one of those mistakes.

"This is a really important period for Rishi Sunak.

"It's his once-only chance to show himself anew to the country as its leader; to get a fresh hearing; to restart the Tories after recent disasters.

"And the Braverman problem is wrecking that fresh start.

"Ideally, the Prime Minister needs to persuade her to resign again, of her own free will, saying she's realised she has become a distraction. If not, he has to show her the door.

"Now, I do understand why she was appointed.

"As I argued yesterday, Suella Braverman is part of the reason - not all of the reason but part of the reason - why Rishi Sunak is Prime Minister.

"Labour say he did a dirty deal with her. I don't know but I doubt it was like that: I can't believe Braverman looked him in the eye and said, my price is the home office; and that he said, well in that case, I give you the Home Office.

"Real life is more nuanced."

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'The Braverman problem is wrecking the PM's fresh start.'

Andrew continued: "I do believe that the Prime Minister was well aware that, if he thought he was going to have to raise taxes, keeping a standard bearer of the right-wing close to him was a clever thing to do.

"Well, perhaps for half an hour or so it was. But it doesn't look clever now.

"Ministers speak of the importance of giving people a second chance and the value of redemption.

"This afternoon, I've had Tory MPs coming up to me and saying that for security reasons and the good of the party she has to go.

"Jake Berry, the former Tory chairman who sat alongside Braverman in Cabinet under Liz Truss, said yesterday she’d been responsible for a really serious breach in the ministerial code - indeed that she’d committed multiple breaches of the code while Home Secretary.

"There are supposed to be more newspaper stories around that issue about to break any day.

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"Today Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP and former member of the intelligence and security committee tweeted: 'MI5 need to have confidence in the Home Secretary whoever that might be.

"'It's a vital relationship of trust, key to the UK's security and democratic oversight of MI5.

"'Any breakdown in that relationship is bad for the security service and the government.

"'It needs to be sorted as soon as possible.'

"I just don't think this is sustainable.

"Rishi Sunak may feel that he is showing strong leadership by holding out.

"No new enquiry, we hear tonight. From the outside I’m afraid it looks like a whopper of a mistake.

"But it’s one, still, that can be sorted."