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Suella Braverman was clinging on as Home Secretary last night in the face of growing Tory anger over her explosive attack on Scotland Yard.<\/p>\n
Rishi Sunak is keeping \u201call options on the table\u201d after the Cabinet minister wrote a bombshell article without his permission accusing the police of \u201cplaying favourites\u201d by allowing pro-Palestine marches to go ahead.<\/p>\n
Senior Tories rallied to \u201cstraight talking\u201d Mrs Braverman\u2019s defence and insisted she is simply reflecting public fury about demonstrations planned for Armistice Day.<\/p>\n
But Conservative party sources said chief whip Simon Hart had been \u201cinundated\u201d with complaints from \u201cvery angry\u201d MPs about the article.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes after the tents row and comments about gay people. It is cumulative and people are very angry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are not many MPs going out to support her,\u201d the insider added.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister could sack Mrs Braverman depending on what details emerge once No 10 gets to the bottom of what happened.<\/p>\n
His relationship with the Home Secretary was described last night as a \u201cprofessional, work like one\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mrs Braverman was \u201cunavailable\u201d on Thursday to deal with requests for information from No 10 as she was attending a hospital appointment with a relative.<\/p>\n
Senior Tories on the right of the party rallied around the Home Secretary last night.<\/p>\n
Conservative MP Miriam Cates said Mrs Braverman\u2019s language “reflects the public mood”.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe reaction to what she says in what you might call the Westminster bubble doesn’t really reflect what the rest of the public think.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe’s very much representing what you might say is the mainstream view in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ex-Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said Mrs Braverman was \u201cright to say what she did\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cMany say they want authentic politicians who tell it like it is – and then complain when they do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is in my view correct to call out a lack of even-handedness in the way some demonstrations, and indeed some opinions, are policed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaying anything else invites people to disbelieve their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But one senior Tory on the right insisted support for Mrs Braverman among his wing of the party was limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am dismayed by her comments,\u201d the MP said. \u201cThe sentiments may be right but there are ways to say it.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the number of people who have gone out publicly to back her, it is not a huge number. She is not universally popular on the right of the party.\u201d<\/p>\n
An ally of Mrs Braverman\u2019s said she has not breached the ministerial code because the article did not cover any policy issues and what language a Secretary of State uses is up to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has done nothing wrong,\u201d they added. \u201cIt would be a pretty spurious reason to sack her.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Conservative MP Sir Michael Fabricant said \u201cmixed views\u201d are being shared in Tory WhatsApp groups about Mrs Braverman.<\/p>\n
The backbencher said he was \u201cgenerally a fan\u201d of Mrs Braverman but he did not agree with comments she made earlier this week about rough sleepers doing so as a lifestyle choice.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThere are mixed views in the Conservative Party. I\u2019m a member of a number of their WhatsApp groups and I see what some of my colleagues are saying.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome are robustly defending Suella Braverman as I\u2019m trying to do \u2013 not 100 per cent but 90 per cent. There are others who totally condemn what she said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transport Secretary Mark Harper rejected his Cabinet colleague\u2019s attack on the Met and insisted \u201cpolice forces are focused on upholding the law without fear or favour\u201d.<\/p>\n
One Whitehall source said Mrs Braverman was an \u201cattention seeker\u201d who looks like she is trying to \u201cundermine\u201d the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n
The row erupted after the Home Secretary wrote in The Times that \u201cthere is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mrs Braverman also prompted anger and confusion among some in Northern Ireland, after she compared the pro-Palestinian demonstrations to unspecified marches in the region.<\/p>\n
London Minister Paul Scully said: \u201cI would just say to every minister and every political leader: we have got to use our language carefully and we have got to make sure that we concentrate on dampening things down rather than fuelling that hatred and division.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Sunak will make a decision once No 10 has uncovered how the article was passed to the Times despite a demand for significant changes to be made to it first.<\/p>\n
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, who has been tipped as a candidate to replace Mrs Braverman, declined to criticise her comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot weighing and I know, I have seen up close, Suella working incredibly hard, and also incredibly constructively, with the police in order to deal with these challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuella, like me and like many others, is deeply concerned about what may happen if a march goes ahead on Armistice Day,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Political Thinking podcast.<\/p>\n
Tim Loughton, a member of the Home Affairs committee, said the Home Secretary should let Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley “get on with the job”.<\/p>\n