Suella Braverman news – latest: Home Secretary in fresh code breach claims after speeding row
The home secretary is already facing accusations that she broke the ministerial code after she asked staff to help her dodge a speeding fine
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Suella Braverman is facing fresh allegations that she broke the ministerial code over her failure to formally disclose years of previous work with the Rwandan government.
The home secretary is already facing accusations that she broke the ministerial code after the Sunday Times revealed Ms Braverman asked her staff to help her dodge a speeding fine.
Now Ms Braverman is facing further pressure after she failed to disclose that she co-founded a charity called the Africa Justice Foundation which worked with several key members of President Paul Kagame’s government who are involved in the UK’s £140m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Ms Braverman did not officially disclose her previous links to the country when appointed home secretary in 2022, despite ongoing legal challenges alleging politically-driven human rights violations including torture, murder and kidnappings.
One former minister told The Independent that the home secretary “never mentioned” her work with the charity and should have been “upfront and transparent”.
A spokesperson for the home secretary said it was “not necessary” for Ms Braverman to disclose her links with the charity, which she resigned from shortly before being elected to parliament.
Foreign students will be barred from bringing dependents to UK in migration curb
Suella Braverman has announced a crackdown on overseas students bringing family members to the UK as part of a push to reduce net migration.
The home secretary said all foreign students – apart from those on postgraduate research programmes – will be banned from bringing dependents from January 2024.
Ms Braverman said there had been an “unexpected” spike in the number of relatives coming with students – saying the trend could “not be at the expense” of the Tory promise to cut immigration.
Read the full story:
Foreign students will be barred from bringing dependents to UK in migration curb
The announcement, which comes into effect in January 2024, comes as the Government battles to bring down net migration.
Former head of civil service laments ‘gotcha’ response to ministerial code breaches
The former head of the civil service said one problem with the ministerial code is that any potential breach is treated as a “gotcha moment”.
Sir Gus O’Donnell, who was cabinet secretary between 2005 and 2011, declined to say whether Home Secretary Suella Braverman broke the code over her handling of a speeding offence.
But he rejected the assumption that ministers should automatically resign if a breach is identified.
Speaking at an Institute for Government (IfG) event on Tuesday, Sir Gus said: “One of the things that was wrong about the ministerial code (is) that people thought, journalists in particular, about this, ‘Aha, gotcha. You broke the ministerial code therefore you must resign’, which is not true.
“It shouldn’t be true. It should be, ‘You broke the ministerial code, it is actually a relatively minor offence, I am going to give you a yellow card and we’ll move on’.”
He added: “I would personally like the independent investigation to have, overall, more power to take up, to start investigations.
“Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this and then the Prime Minister will make a decision as to what should be done.”
Also appearing at the IfG event, former cabinet minister George Eustice said he did not know the circumstances of Mrs Braverman’s case but echoed Sir Gus’s view on the way events are being perceived.
He said: “There is a tendency sometimes where we have these rules for them to be turned into a kind of gotcha kind of debate.
“The thing that always surprised me about our system is rarely do people get done for any serious wrongdoing. It is usually some minor technical crossing of the line that then gets blown out of proportion.
“It is a big weakness in our system that we have these distractions.”
In the last question of the urgent questions session, DUP MP Jim Shannon said we should all learn from the Biblical quote, “that he who is without sin should cast the first stone.”
Conservative Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) spoke of a “clear attempt to play the woman not the ball,” during an Urgent Questions session about the home secretary’s handling of a speeding fine.
She asked: “Does (he) agree with me that this leak is a clear attempt to play the woman not the ball, an attempt that undermines our democracy and distracts from the important job of delivering on ordinary people’s priorities.”
Cabinet office minister Jeremy Quin replied: “The Home secretary has an incredibly important job to do, I totally agree with (her) and I know she’s deeply committed whatever the noise, to get on and deliver that job for the British people.”
Conservative Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) said: “I have no first hand knowledge of this particular case, but does (he) agree with me, that there is and should always be a difference between asking a civil servant to do something which may or may not be wrong and asking a civil servant for advice on whether something is or is not likely to be wrong if you do it.”
Mr Quin replied: “Of course I would agree that there is a difference there, but I wouldn’t wish to speculate about this particular circumstance as (he) will understand.”
‘How many strikes’ before the Home Secretary is ‘out,’ asks Angela Rayner
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner has asked “how many strikes” before the Home Secretary is “out”?
Asking an urgent question in the Commons, she said: “Our constituents expect those who make the rules to follow the rules, especially the minister responsible for upholding the law.”
Ms Rayner continued: “So can he (Jeremy Quin) start by confirming whether the home secretary did or did not ask civil servants for help on this matter? After days of dither and delay... the prime minister still hasn’t decided whether there should be an investigation by his ethics adviser. When can we expect to know what the prime minister is thinking on this matter?”
After referring to Ms Braverman’s previous breach of the ministerial code back in October, she added: “How many strikes before she is out?”
Cabinet office minister Mr Quin said he is not “going to get into speculation about the events in question”, adding: “He (the prime minister) is gathering the information.
“What you know of the prime minister is that he will deal with these issues properly and professionally, but the first point of that is to gather the information required on which he can take a view.”
Braverman announces crackdown on foreign students bringing family to the UK
Suella Braverman has announced a crackdown on overseas students bringing family members to the UK as part of a push to reduce net migration.
The home secretary said all foreign students – apart from those on postgraduate research programmes – will be banned from bringing dependents from January 2024.
Ms Braverman said there had been an “unexpected” spike in the number of relatives coming with students – saying the trend could “not be at the expense” of the Tory promise to cut immigration.
Rishi Sunak’s government is also stopping international students from switching from the student via route into work routes before their studies have been completed.
Maintenance requirements for students and their dependants will also be pulled, and Ms Braverman has vowed to clamp down on “unscrupulous education agents who may be supporting inappropriate applications to sell immigration not education”.
Adam Forrest reports:
Braverman announces crackdown on foreign students bringing family to UK
Home secretary says spike in relatives could not be ‘at the expense’ of Tory pledge to cut immigration
Labour MP Clive Efford asked if it is true that the civil servants who asked to arrange a private speed awareness course for Suella Braverman referred the matter to the Cabinet Office’s proprietary and ethics team.
Jeremy Quin said the PM is seeking facts as to what happened.
SNP MP Joanna Cherry asks Jeremy Quin if the home secretary’s view on the Rwanda migration deal is influenced by her links to a charity that worked with members of the Rwandan government, revealed by The Independent.
Ms Cherry said Braverman has a “rather rosey-eyed view” of Rwanda’s human rights record.
Quin said he has not read the report and had only seen a tweet.
A Conservative former minister has said it would be better to allow the independent adviser to initiate his own investigations into breaches of the Ministerial Code.
Former attorney general Jeremy Wright told the Commons: “He (Jeremy Quin) will recall that the Committee on Standards in Public Life, when I was a member of it, recommended that the independent adviser should be able to initiate their own inquiries into breaches of the Ministerial Code, should be able to determine whether there was a breach, leaving of course properly, sanctions for the prime minister to determine.
“That has several advantages, it gives the benefit of a decision being taken at arm’s length from Government and if I may say to him, it would also mean we will have fewer occasions such as this, and he will have to answer fewer UQs (Urgent Questions).”
Cabinet office minister Jeremy Quin replied: “I wouldn’t wish us to detract from the fact that the Ministerial Code is a prime minister’s document. It’s a code as to how the prime minister expects his ministers or her ministers to behave in a set of circumstances.
“The prime minister is the ultimate judge of that Ministerial Code.”
Home secretary Suella Braverman told MPs: “I am pleased to announce a package of measures to help deliver our goal of falling net migration, while supporting the Government’s priority of growing the economy.”
The measures include: removing the right for international students to bring dependants, unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes, and removing the ability for international students to switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed.
The Government is also reviewing the maintenance requirements for students and dependants and introducing steps to clamp down on “unscrupulous education agents who may be supporting inappropriate applications to sell immigration not education”.
There will also be better communication of the immigration rules to the higher education sector and to international students, and improved and more targeted enforcement activity, she said.
“We are committed to attracting the brightest and the best to the UK. Therefore, our intention is to work with universities over the course of the next year to design an alternative approach that ensures that the best and the brightest students can bring dependants to our world leading universities, while continuing to reduce net migration,” she said.
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