Suella Braverman sacked as British home secretary as Sunak shakes up team

James Cleverly has been appointed Home Secretary following the sacking of Ms Braverman

Former British home secretary Suella Braverman during the Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph, in Whitehall, London. Picture: PA

Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary as Rishi Sunak took action following her unauthorised article criticising the way pro-Palestinian protests had been policed.

A Downing Street source said the British prime minister “asked Suella Braverman to leave government and she has accepted”.

The Conservatives said Mr Sunak is carrying out a wider reshuffle which “strengthens his team in government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future”.

But sacking one of the leading figures on the Tory right could pose difficulties for Mr Sunak as he seeks to get his party united behind him and ready for a general election expected next year.

Mrs Braverman said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary.” 

Ominously for Mr Sunak, she added: “I will have more to say in due course.” 

In a major government shake up, former prime minister David Cameron has returned to government as British foreign secretary. 

The former prime minister replaced James Cleverly as Foreign Secretary and will be given a peerage.

Mr Cleverly takes on the job of Home Secretary after Mr Sunak ended Mrs Braverman’s controversial tenure in the job.

News of Mrs Braverman’s exit came as defence minister James Heappey was touring broadcast studios.

Minutes before she was sacked, he had told LBC that Mr Sunak and his team in No 10 had been “very clear she (Mrs Braverman) has his confidence and, in that sense, one would imagine that she will continue”.

But he was told on air during an ITV Good Morning Britain interview that she had been sacked, leaving him to say: “Your viewers will be enjoying my discomfort, but it is in this case difficult to offer commentary when I just don’t know what is going on.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: “Suella Braverman was never fit to be Home Secretary. Rishi Sunak knew this and he still appointed her.

“It was the Prime Minister’s sheer cowardice that kept her in the job even for this long. We are witnessing a broken party and a broken Government, both of which are breaking this country.”