Suella Braverman news – live: Home secretary warns Tories to stop infighting amid rift reports
Downing Street earlier denied a rift between Suella Braverman and Rishi Sunak
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Setting out her vision for conservatism at a right-wing conference in central London, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has warned the Conservative Party to stop infighting.
Amid reports of fresh rifts in the cabinet, Ms Braverman told the audience at the National Conservatism conference: “One way that we Conservatives must distinguish ourselves from the Left is by not devouring ourselves through fratricide.”
Ms Braverman, who unsuccessfully ran as Conservative Party leader last year, added that she was “optimistic about the future of conservatism, our great nation and of Western civilisation”.
Earlier, Downing Street was forced to deny a rift between Ms Braverman and Rishi Sunak amid reports she would push the PM to bring down overall migration.
Mr Sunak’s official spokesman said: “She continues to represent the UK government views on all issues relating to the Home Office, as you would expect.”
Ms Braverman also attacked left-wing politics, saying it was “making people feel terrible about our past”.
Suella Braverman’s most controversial quotes – from immigrant ‘invasions’ to the ‘wokerati’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman was today heckled by protesters angry at her plans to curb illegal immigration by sending anyone who arrives on a small boat to Rwanda.
The outburst from social justice campaigners Extinction Rebellion came on day one of the first National Conservatism Conference in London. The fringe event brings together supporters and representatives of the harder right of the Conservative party. Ideas being discussed are largely pro-Brexit, anti-immigration and about defending cultural traditions.
In her short tenure as home secretary – once removed for breaching the ministerial code by sending official emails from a personal account – Ms Braverman has never been one to shy away from delivering a contentious line. In fact, she seems to enjoy provoking the ire of her political opponents when given a chance, once joking that annoying the Left would be her “delight”.
Here’s a selection of some of her most controversial quotes:
Suella Braverman’s most controversial quotes
The home secretary has never been one to shy away from delivering a controversial line
‘You cannot have immigration without integration’, says Braverman
Suella Braverman has argued that “you cannot have immigration without integration”.
The Home Secretary told the National Conservatism conference: “People who come here should embrace and respect this country. They must not commit crimes. They may practise any faith or none, and they need to respect everyone else’s right to do the same.
“They need to learn English and understand British social norms and mores, which is not to say that they cannot enrich and add to our culture. Above all, they cannot simply turn up and say: ‘I live here now, you have to look after me’.
“My parents came here through legal and controlled migration. They spoke the language. They threw themselves into the community. They embraced British values.”
She continued: “The unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself, combined with identity politics, is a recipe for communal disaster.”
‘White people do not exist in a special state of sin’, Braverman tells conference
White people do not exist in “a special state of sin”, Suella Braverman has said.
To applause from delegates, she told the National Conservatism conference: “I think the left can only sell its vision for the future by making people feel terrible about our past.
“White people do not exist in a special state of sin or collective guilt.”
She added: “Nobody should be blamed for things that happened before they were born.
“The defining feature of this country’s relationship with slavery is not that we practised it, but that we led the way in abolishing it.
“We should be proud of who we are.”
Braverman rejects argument it’s ‘hypocritical’ for her to push for lower migration
Suella Braverman has said she rejects the argument that it is hypocritical for her, as someone from an ethnic minority, to push for lower migration.
“Conservatives understand that borders, national identity and public order are fundamental to a healthy nation,” the Home Secretary said in a keynote speech at the National Conservatism conference.
“While illegal migration is rightly our priority given the acute challenges that we face in the Channel, we must not lose sight of the importance of controlling legal migration as well...
“It’s not xenophobic to say that mass and rapid migration is unsustainable in terms of housing supply, public services or community relations. Nor is it bigoted to say that we have too many asylum seekers in this country for whom we have insufficient accommodation.
“That absorbing more and more people means building more and more homes is another one of those unfashionable facts that the open-borders brigade would say means we’re starting a culture war.
“It’s not racist for anyone, ethnic minority or otherwise, to want to control our borders. I reject the left’s argument that it’s hypocritical for someone from an ethnic minority, like mine, to know these facts or to speak these truths.”
Braverman backs coronation arrests
Suella Braverman has backed the arrest of protesters at the King’s coronation, Lizzie Dearden reports.
She said:"The people’s right to freely enjoy that day trumped any claim of reckless, selfish people that they should be free to disrupt whatever they want without effective consequence."
The home secretary also called on her colleagues to stop infighting if they wanted to win the next election:
"One way that we Conservatives must distinguish ourselves from the Left is by not devouring ourselves through fratricide."
Braverman jokes Starmer should run as next female Labour leader
Suella Braverman joked that Sir Keir Starmer could campaign to become "Labour’s first female prime minister" next year.
Speaking at the National Conservatism conference in Westminster, the home secretary said: "Conservatives must always be honest with the public. Honest about our principles and honest about our priorities.
"In that way, we distinguish ourselves from the leader of the left, Sir Keir Starmer. He opposes today the things he stood for yesterday, that he’ll change his mind on tomorrow and he’ll campaign on next year as a man of great principle.
"Although given his definition of a woman, we can’t rule him out from running to be Labour’s first female prime minister."
Earlier in her speech, Ms Braverman said to applause from the audience that it was an "unfashionable fact" that "100 per cent of women do not have a penis".
Labour on course to win majority thanks to tactical voting, study finds
Labour is on course to win the next general election, with a 13-point lead which would deliver a majority, according to research by the Labour Together think tank, Adam Forrest reports.
Almost one in four voters (24 per cent) who backed the Liberal Democrat at the local elections will switch to Labour at the general election, YouGov polling for the group linked to Keir Starmer has found.
Josh Simons, director of Labour Together, said: “The narrative that Labour should fear a Liberal Democrat or Green resurgence is nonsense. In the places where it matters, voters are backing Labour - and when a general election comes, even more will do so.”
XR confirms members disrupted Braverman speech
Extinction Rebellion have confirmed that their members "secretly entered and disrupted" the National Conservatism Conference, saying the intention was to highlight "increasingly dangerous rhetoric from senior political figures", home affairs editor Lizzie Dearden reports.
They first interrupted Jacob Rees-Mogg’s keynote speech in the morning, before targeting the home secretary’s appearance.
A press release called said XR wanted to raise "concerns of increasingly fascist ideals being adopted by senior members of the Conservative Party", citing draconian protest laws in the Public Order Bill and accusing the government of scapegoating asylum seekers.
Protesters disrupt Braverman speech
Our home affairs editor, Lizzie Dearden, reports from the National Conservatism Conference:
Suella Braverman’s speech to a right-wing conference in Westminster got off to a bumpy start this afternoon, when it was disrupted by Extinction Rebellion protesters.
All seemed quiet outside, where two protesters were silently holding placards - one giant Big Brother-style eye and one protesting against “lying” politicians.
Security is tight with no-one allowed entry without pre-registering and collecting a pass. But at least two Extinction Rebellion protesters managed to gain entry.
They were sat among the crowd when the home secretary began her speech on stage at 2pm, with a middle-aged man first standing up in the crowd.
He called out that he was from Extinction Rebellion and representing an asylum seeker, before being drowned out by boos from the audience and being taken away by security.
As he disappeared through the doors of the venue, a second protester stood up and starting shouting about small boats before also being booed and seized by security.
As she was taken outside, the home secretary asked: “Is there anyone else” to cheers and claps from the audience. She added: “It’s audition day for the shadow cabinet.”
UK will play big role ion training Ukraine pilots - Sunak
The UK has no plans to supply jets to Ukraine but a new flying school will help train Kyiv’s pilots and the government pledged to work with allies on securing the planes Volodymyr Zelensky needs.
In an announcement made as Mr Zelensky met Rishi Sunak for talks at Chequers, the government said an "elementary flying phase" for groups of Ukrainian pilots would begin this summer.
The move will adapt the programme used by UK pilots to provide Ukrainian counterparts with skills they can apply to different kinds of aircraft.
"It is not a straightforward thing - as Volodymyr and I have been discussing - to build up that fighter combat aircraft capability," Mr Sunak said.
"It’s not just the provision of planes, it’s also the training of pilots and all the logistics that go alongside that and the UK can play a big part in that.
"One thing we will be doing, starting actually relatively soon, is training of Ukrainian pilots and that’s something we’ve discussed today and we’re ready to implement those plans in relatively short order."
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