Rishi Sunak was between a rock and a hard place, with the clock counting down. The British Prime Minister decided early this Monday to expel from his Government the controversial and incendiary Suella Braverman, who until today held the position of Minister of the Interior. The new head of security will be James Cleverly, current head of Foreign Affairs. And former Prime Minister David Cameron (2010-2016) will be the new head of British diplomacy. Not being an MP, Cameron, 57, will have to be appointed to the House of Lords to be able to join the Government.
The dismissal of Braverman and the surprise announcement of Cameron’s appointment have been the hidden earthquake in a broad remodeling of the Government that had been expected for several weeks, and which was aimed at replacing members of the Government with little strength or few results in their respective departments. Like Will Quince, who has announced his resignation as Minister of Health after having been unable to reduce waiting lists in hospitals, one of Sunak’s main promises a year ago. Or Jesse Norman, who has also resigned from his position as Minister of Transport after the controversial Downing Street announcement that the HS2 project to bring high speed to the north of England was finally cancelled.
These resignations have been joined in recent hours by that of the head of the Environment, Therese Coffey, who has expressed in a letter to Sunak that it is time to take a step back to leave the Government and return to work from her position. parliamentary
The British Prime Minister has combined surprise and the desperate need to straighten out an erratic Government, with the intention of standing up to a complex and difficult electoral year in which Sunak, who has never submitted himself to the test of the polls, still aspires to be re-elected. A government remodeling that was more than expected has surprised no one. The coup de effect has been to get rid of the most reactionary and ultra element of his Cabinet and recover a moderate and controversial figure to provide political weight to Downing Street.
Sunak has thus launched a risky move, by offering Cameron a position as relevant as Foreign Affairs. It is the first time in more than half a century that a former prime minister returns to the Government in a lower position, and Cameron also carries with him the original sin of calling – and losing – the Brexit referendum in 2016, which divided the Conservative Party already. the entirety of British society.
Cameron reacted, following the confirmation of his appointment, on the social network (…) It has never been more important for our country to remain on the side of our allies, strengthen ties with our partners and ensure that our voice is heard,” said the former prime minister whose decision was the seed that most clouded the relations between London and Brussels and between London and Washington.
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Labor criticism
For his part, Labor Foreign Policy spokesman David Lammy said: “David Cameron was a disastrous prime minister. “His appointment is the last act of desperation by a Government devoid of talent and ideas.” And Labour’s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, added: “Just a few weeks ago, Rishi Sunak was placing Cameron as part of a status quo that he promised to change. She now clings to him like a life jacket. The promise to turn around thirteen years of conservative governments has become a joke.”
Sunak is clinging to Cameron’s popularity among the moderate Conservative electorate and the more centrist wing of the party to send an image of unity, at a time when toriesMore reactionaries want a tougher crackdown on crime or irregular immigration – something that the prime minister has incorporated into his speech – and the more temperate ones ask for a return to sanity. Sunak gives more political weight to a Government that lacked muscle, a year before a very complicated general election for the tories. Polls give the Labor opposition an average lead of 20 percentage points.
Regarding the dismissal of the Home Secretary, Sunak had two options on the table that were equally complicated and full of traps. After a weekend of violence in the streets, with clashes between far-right and pro-Palestinian protesters and more than 120 arrests, and three days before the Supreme Court rules on the controversial plan to deport illegal immigrants to Rwanda, the first Minister was torn between making Braverman a martyr for the right wing of the conservatives – and therefore a future political rival – or showing a show of authority and getting rid of a highly toxic member of his Government.
Last week, Braverman had written a column in the newspaper The Times against the recommendations of the prime minister’s office, which was able to supervise the text, in which it accused Scotland Yard of practicing double standards with street demonstrations and having a clearly favorable bias towards pro-Palestinian activists. He defined these street protests, which on Saturday gathered more than 300,000 people in London, as “hate marches” and accused them of anti-Semitism and sympathy with Islamist terrorism.
His accusations, which inflamed the head of the Metropolitan Police, Mark Rowley, the Labor opposition and a large part of the Conservative MPs, contributed to increasing the tension prior to the weekend and mobilizing hundreds of ultras and members of the fascist organization. English Defense League. Even its former leader, Tommy Robinson, was seen on the streets of the British capital.
If the Supreme Court rules against the deportations to Rwanda, it is very likely that Braverman will lead the request, demanded for years by the extreme right of the Conservative Party, that the United Kingdom abandon the European Convention on Human Rights. For the hard wing of the toriesThis treaty, of which the British were among the first signatories, is the latest European bête noire to tie the hands of governments on immigration matters. Sunak could not allow such a rebellion by his Home Secretary.
If, in the opposite direction, the Supreme Court ends up agreeing with Downing Street and gives the green light for the Rwanda strategy, it would be very difficult for public opinion, the conservative voters further to the right and an important part of the party to justify the expulsion of Braverman.
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