Time the PM brought ‘dog-whistling’ Home Office to heel

Editorial: Following Suella Braverman’s latest outrageous volley against asylum seekers, our notably numerate prime minister should run a rule over her distorted claims

Prime minister Rishi Sunak and home secretary Suella Braverman (PA)

It is never a good idea for any “here today, gone tomorrow” politician to pick a fight with a national treasure. It does, however, require special reserves of ineptitude for such a figure – Suella Braverman, predictably enough – to offend an entire trove of much-loved national treasures.

Ms Braverman’s careless and dismissive remarks about gay people bogusly seeking asylum were predictably offensive, and she has suffered the inevitable backlash. Whatever political advantage she may have sought with her bizarre intervention will rightly be swamped by the revulsion it provokes – and even in the Conservative circles she seeks to cultivate in her barely disguised leadership campaign.

Sir Elton John, global star and part of the very identity of the British nation, and his husband, the filmmaker David Furnish, have pointed out that what the home secretary said in her ill-starred speech in Washington risks “legitimising hate and violence” against gay people. Sir Elton and Mr Furnish say they are “very concerned” by her comments, calling for “more compassion, support and acceptance for those seeking a safer future”. Given Ms Braverman’s track record, that hope is sure to be disappointed.