Suella Braverman, who was sacked as Britain’s home secretary on Monday, had long been a divisive figure within the ruling Conservative Party, whose provocative rhetoric won her support from the far right while alienating his more moderate colleagues.
His dismissal on Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak follows the publication of an extraordinary opinion piece in the Times of London in which Ms Braverman reprimanded the city’s main police force for deciding not to ban a pro-Palestinian protest march which coincided with Armistice Day, when Britain commemorates those who fought in World War I and other conflicts.
Ms Braverman, who as Home Secretary was responsible for law enforcement, immigration and national security, also described the tens of thousands of people who regularly took part in Saturday protests in London in support of Palestinians as “hate marchers” and “mobs.” Despite the fact that the protests have been mostly peaceful.
Downing Street said it had not authorized the article, as is customary, and it emerged that several changes requested by the Prime Minister’s Office had not been made before publication.
On Saturday, critics including Labor London Mayor Sadiq Khan accused Ms Braverman of encouraging the counter-protest in which some right-wing activists broke a police cordon and claimed they were on the streets to defend a war memorial. Police said about 145 people were arrested Saturday, most of them counter-protesters, and nine officers were injured.
In her article, Ms. Braverman argued that the protests were not “a simple cry for help for Gaza” but “an assertion of the primacy of certain groups – particularly Islamists – of the type we are more accustomed to to see in Northern Ireland.
This reference to Northern Ireland, making rhetorical use of sectarian tensions in a region where efforts to restore a power-sharing government have so far failed, also provoked anger.
In the article, Ms Braverman accused the police of applying “double standards” in the way they handled the protests. “Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a harsh response, but pro-Palestinian crowds displaying almost identical behavior are largely ignored, even when they are clearly breaking the law,” he said. she writes.
Ms Braverman had made it clear she wanted Saturday’s march banned in part because it coincided with Armistice Day. Mr Sunak had taken the same view, but police assured him on Wednesday that all possible measures would be taken to prevent unrest. He released a statement confirming the protest would go ahead, pledging to “remain true to our principles.” » of the right to demonstrate peacefully.
Ms. Braverman’s article, published a few hours later, appears to call into question her position.
Ms Braverman, who ran unsuccessfully for leadership of the Conservative Party last year, has long adopted far-right clichés in her statements and interviews, describing migration as a “hurricane”, the arrival of asylum seekers on the British coast in small boats like a “hurricane”. “invasion” and homelessness as a “life choice”. She recently suggested imposing restrictions on charities that provide tents to people living on the streets.
