Braverman’s bizarre claim: ‘I wanted to pretend to be Margaret Thatcher to defend myself in race row’

Home secretary wanted to call herself ‘Margaret’ and quote Margaret Thatcher

Suella Braverman has said she briefly considered posing as a caller to a radio station to defend herself against claims of racism.

It comes as the home secretary defended her use of “unfashionable facts” by highlighting the British-Pakistani background of grooming gang members.

“Last week a radio show had a phone-in asking listeners to debate whether I’m a racist,” the top cabinet minister wrote in The Spectator – saying she wanted to quote Margaret Thatcher.

Ms Braverman said: “I thought about calling in as Margaret from Fareham, to suggest the home secretary take courage from another Margaret’s words: ‘I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left’.”

The home secretary has come under fire ever since she wrote a newspaper column earlier this month where she described members of grooming gangs as “groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani”.

A government review published in 2020 found that members of child grooming gangs come from “diverse” backgrounds and there is not enough evidence to suggest more are Asian or black than other ethnicities.

The research, commissioned by the Home Office, said most group child sex offenders are men under the age of 30, and the majority are white.

Ms Braverman defended her comments in her latest column: “To say the overwhelming majority of perpetrators in towns such as Rotherham, Telford, and Rochdale were British-Pakistani and that their victims were white girls is not to say that most British-Pakistanis are perpetrators of sexual abuse.

“The former is a truth, one that made authorities reluctant to confront the issue. The latter is a lie, the speaking of which would be a disgraceful prejudice. I know that my motives will be questioned – such is a politician’s lot. But there are lines that we must not cross. If everything is racist, nothing is,” said the home secretary.

Suella Braverman under fire over grooming gangs remarks (PA Wire)

She added: “Casually accusing me of racism for speaking plain truths distorts the meaning of the term, and does a great disservice to all of us working to combat racism.”

Addressing accusations of racism over her recent comments on grooming gangs, she said it is not racist to speak “plain truths” – but stressed that most British-Pakistani men are not perpetrators of sexual abuse.

The home secretary also took aim at Labour for Sir Keir Starmer’s attacks on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over law and order policy and his assertion that "99.9% of women" do not have a penis.

Ms Braverman said: “There is something peculiar about this political moment, where those of us advancing unfashionable facts are beaten over the head with fashionable fictions.

“I suppose the ethnicity of grooming gang perpetrators in a string of cases is the sort of fact that has simply become unfashionable in some quarters - like the fact that 100% of women do not have a penis.”