Suella Braverman says stopping migrant boat crossings will be priority as home secretary

Home Office chief tells staff to go into ‘full listening mode so that we can deliver the government’s agenda’

Braverman replaces Priti Patel as home secretary (PA)

Suella Braverman has told civil servants that stopping migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats will be one of her key priorities as home secretary.

She arrived in her post with the number of asylum seekers making the journey at record highs, over two years after Priti Patel vowed to make the route “unviable”.

Ms Braverman did not give any details of how she would prevent crossings in a speech on Wednesday, following an aborted attempt to force dinghies back to France and the failure of claimed “deterrents” such as naval patrols and harsher immigration laws to have an effect.

High Court judges are currently considering whether the agreement to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, which stalled after a wave of legal challenges, is lawful.

In an address to Home Office staff on Wednesday morning, Ms Braverman laid out her key priorities.

A source who saw the speech told The Independent that Ms Braverman said one was stopping Channel boat crossings, while others included driving down violent crime and achieving Boris Johnson’s programme to recruit 20,000 extra police officers by March.

The new home secretary also named counterterrorism as a priority and spoke about “pet peeves”.

Ms Braverman reportedly said that she was a “big fan of working in the office rather than remotely”, raising concerns among civil servants that post-Covid flexibility may be limited.

All Home Office staff were sent an email from permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft and second permanent secretary Tricia Hayes after Liz Truss announced her cabinet on Tuesday evening.

The message, seen by The Independent, praised Ms Patel in spite of widespread bad feeling among civil servants over behaviour that prompted a 2020 inquiry finding she broke the ministerial code by bullying staff.

“We thank the outgoing home secretary for all that she has worked with us to deliver over the last three years and wish her well for the future,” the email said.

“As we welcome the new home secretary to the department, we can expect to see some changes in focus over the next few months.

“We need to get to know her and her ways of working and, above all, we must be in full listening mode so that we can deliver the government’s agenda.”

Mr Rycroft and Ms Hayes said they were confident that Ms Braverman and her team would “appreciate” the talent and expertise of civil servants.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, which represents Home Office staff, said they wanted Ms Braverman to halt planned job cuts and increase pay to deal with the cost of living crisis.

General secretary Mark Serwotka added: “Ordering our members back to the office, when they have been working efficiently and productively at home for months, is not a good start for the new home secretary.

“They, not her, are the ones with the expertise here. She would be better advised to listen to them to see how they can best implement her policies.”

Ms Braverman is considered to be on the right wing of the Conservative Party, previously accusing the civil service of being too “woke” and intervening in a case involving Black Lives Matter protesters who brought down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.

The 42-year-old was previously the attorney general and was a barrister before becoming an MP in 2015.

Her constituency website says she defended the Home Office in immigration cases, and the Parole Board in legal challenges by prisoners.

The Home Office said that flexible working arrangements would continue for roles where it is appropriate.

A spokesperson added: “The home secretary addressed Home Office colleagues in a short speech setting out her priorities, as is customary when a new secretary of state takes up a post.”