01 Nov Braverman email breaches are ‘very serious’, says former Home Office minister
HOME Secretary Suella Braverman should be sacked for breaking ministerial guidelines on security, according to former Home Office minister Norman Baker.
He told GB News: “It was made very clear to me and to other ministers when you were appointed that government business is government business and has to be kept in house, and you do not convey matters to external parties, including in your own party, this is particularly important at the Home Office, which of course, is the security department dealing with a whole range of sensitive issues.
“…it wouldn’t have happened under Theresa May, it simply wouldn’t have happened. I cannot believe that Suella Braverman did not know that this went against the ministerial code. It’s a very serious matter.
“She’s a serial offender and to apply Home Office terminology, I think six strikes and you’re out is how I think it should be with her.”
In an interview with Mark Longhurst on GB News, he said: “I mean, she’s totally the wrong person to be Home Secretary.
“There’s a whole range of issues and we got this petrol bombing in Dover, we’ve got the other matters to do with Manston…this itself is an offence that she was dismissed for and yet, Rishi Sunak has brought her back after six days.
“You have to ask yourself, was Rishi Sunak unaware of this matter, was he naive about it, or was it some further grubby deal to get her support…”
He added: “I was given a security briefing on day one about what you can and can’t do. We’ve got Alex Younger, the former head of MI6 in the paper today saying ministers need to take cybersecurity far more seriously.
“We cannot have a situation where the Home Secretary is not trusted by the security services which is where we seem to be going.”
On the current crisis with cross-channel migrants, Mr Baker said: “As soon as Grant Shapps became Home Secretary for six days, if you recall, Grant Shapps had given an urgent briefing and tried to sort that out right away, having inherited a complete mess from Suella Braverman in her first incarnation.
“The fact is, she was acting illegally. This is the advice from civil servants…by not progressing them in a way that met the government’s own requirements.
“She’s broken the law as Home Secretary, she has broken the law by behaving in this way and Manston is a processing centre which is suitable really only for people to be held for a very short period overnight. If people have been there for four weeks, this is completely unacceptable.
“I have to say that my interpretation of what she’s doing is she’s trying to send a message that asylum seekers aren’t welcome, to make it as unpleasant for them as possible.
