Just one of many reasons Braverman has to go

[Emrys]

At today's Prime Minister's Questions, Keir Starmer tried to hold Rishi Sunak to account for a number of issues. Sunak appeared to have shed the faux-humility he feigned in his stilted acceptance speech the other day and decided to channel Boris Johnson's rambustious style of baying obfuscation in response to any question he didn't feel like answering properly.

One such question concerned his reappointed/reprieved Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and the shady circumstances surrounding her dismissal/resignation from Liz Truss's shortlived cabinet in the dim and distant past of last week. Braverman admitted having breached the ministerial code by using her private email account for government business and apologized for her "error" (note singular). But there's a bit more to it than that.

A detail in a Times article by Tim Shipman and Carol Wheeler shed more light on what was going on:

... Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, alerted Truss that Suella Braverman, the home secretary, had committed two breaches of the ministerial code. She had emailed cabinet papers from her ministerial account to her private gmail account and then on to backbench veteran Sir John Hayes, a fellow right-winger. She also copied in someone she thought was Hayes’s wife but was actually an assistant to Andrew Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole. After taking advice from colleagues, Percy spoke to the chief whip, Wendy Morton, who referred the issue to Case.

Braverman was later to argue that the document was simply a written ministerial statement, that she had had a blazing row with Truss about immigration numbers (implying that was the real reason for her dismissal) and that she had sent it by mistake at 4am. It was, in fact, sent three or four hours later that morning.

A No 10 source was withering: “She doesn’t make any decision without consulting John Hayes,” who had been acting as an unofficial adviser, frequently seen in the Home Office, meetings which had come to the attention of Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary. “Concerns had been raised prior to Wednesday that Braverman might have been sharing restricted government documents with people she shouldn’t have,” a source said. Braverman agreed to resign.

https://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/index.php?/forums/topic/99909-boris-johnson/&page=332

The Ministerial Code nowadays seems to be honoured more in the breach than the observance, and few expect a state apparatus under the control of a party of government that did its damnedest to protect Boris Johnson and his allies from any consequences for such transgressions to impose any serious sanction on Braverman.

It's not a stretch to infer that Braverman has made a habit of sharing government documents with John Hayes (and goodness knows who else) - and for some reason, his wife - for quite some time.

If anyone wants to slip down the rabbit hole and check out who Hayes is and what he stands for, here's his Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hayes_(British_politician). Holder of what has been the safest Tory seat in the UK, he has some predictably charming views on issues ranging from capital punishment to equal marriage to abortion and, of course, Brexit. He's also a "strategic adviser to BB Energy, a Dubai-headquartered energy trading group".

As for immigration, the Guardian's been doing its own digging to flesh out Hayes's side of the story:

Sir John Hayes: ‘in lockstep’ with Suella Braverman on immigration
Veteran Tory MP was intended recipient of home secretary’s plans sent from her personal email
...

Hayes told the Guardian last week that [Braverman] planned to campaign alongside him on immigration from the backbenches.

“Suella in seeking my advice, sent a draft policy document to me, which she inadvertently ended up sending to a third party in parliament. That is a technical breach of the code,” he said.

“She reported herself and accepted responsibility. She’s disappointed to leave office but resolved to continue to campaign with me and others to fulfil the party’s manifesto commitments to cut legal immigration and end illegal migration.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/26/sir-john-hayes-in-lockstep-with-suella-braverman-on-immigration

Who the "others" are and whether any of them have also been recipients of illicit emails from Braverman, directly or via Hayes, is a question that deserves an answer, but on current form, that's not going to happen on the floor of the Commons.

This may end up being a relatively trivial matter with no serious repercussions for those involved. Maybe it'll be a shot across Braverman's bow that stops such future "unofficial consultations" with Hayes and whoever else. But I have a feeling something else may happen soon that may see her implode, as she seems rather accident-prone.

Meanwhile, I'd rather see Braverman held to account for her hideous views on immigration and asylum seekers, among many other aspects of her portfolio, but it looks like Labour isn't well placed to tackle her on those issues since Starmer declared last week that there's little between Labour and the Tories on immigration.