Suella Braverman has accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of having “manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver” on key policies in a scathing letter after being sacked as home secretary.
In an explosive attack, she said she only accepted the job in September last year because she was given “firm assurances” he would prioritise issues like migration, Brexit and gender.
However she said: “You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies.
“Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises.”
Ms Braverman was sacked as home secretary during the prime minister’s reshuffle on Monday and former foreign secretary James Cleverly took her role.
The move has angered some on the Tory right, with David Cameron’s return to the frontbench seen as a pivot to the centre ground.
In the lengthy letter, Ms Braverman took aim at how Mr Sunak came to be prime minister in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s disastrous and short-lived tenure without facing a vote of party member – and indicated she did a deal with the PM to ensure her “pivotal support”.
She said: “Despite you having been rejected by a majority of party members during the summer leadership contest and thus having no personal mandate to be prime minister, I agreed to support you because of the firm assurances you gave me on key policy priorities.”
She said these included reducing overall legal migration, delivering on the Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law Bills, giving statutory guidance to schools that protects biological sex and agreeing on the possible need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (EHRC) in order to deliver on the Rwanda deportation plan.
However, she claimed that despite sending “numerous letters on the key subjects contained in our agreement”, as well as making requests to discuss them and working up legal and policy advice, “this was often met with equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest”.
She went on: “These are not just pet interests of mine. They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit Referendum.
“They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit Referendum.
“Our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged.”
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