Rishi Sunak defends reappointing Suella Braverman amid claims of 'sleazy backroom deal'

In his first PMQs at the House of Commons, UK PM Rishi Sunak has defended reappointing Suella Braverman as the Home Secretary. Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, accused the UK PM of taking part in a "grubby deal trading national security because he was scared to lose another leadership election," as per a report from Politico. Starmer isn't the only person who accused Rishi Sunak of doing a "sleazy backroom deal" with Suella Braverman to get her endorsement. 

Ian Blackford, the Scottish National Party's leader at Westminster's implied during the PMQs that Rishi Sunak got into a deal with Suella Braverman in which she promised to endorse him as leader of the Tory party if she was reappointed as Home Secretary.

"We all know why he appointed her, a sleazy backroom deal to shore up his own position. Far from being a fresh start, this is a return to the sleaze and scandal of the ghosts of cabinet pasts. The Prime Minister promised to govern with integrity and humility so will he admit his mistake and sack the home secretary without delay," said Blackford, as per a report from Scottish Daily Express. Rishi Sunak sidestepped Blackford's comments by choosing to speak about his positive conversation with Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. 

Why did Braverman resign?

The British Prime Minister admitted that Suella made an "error in judgement" but stated that he was "delighted to welcome her back." Braverman resigned from her post in Liz Truss' cabinet by divulging that she made a mistake and breached protocols of the ministerial code when she sent an unpublished official Home Office document to a backbench Tory MP. 

In his PMQ, Sunak added that he remains committed to a strong United Kingdom, indicating that he won't accept the Scottish National Party's (SNP) proposal of a second Scottish Independence referendum. The Scottish independence referendum occured back in 2014, before the Brexit referendum. The SNP has argued that there should be a second referendum as UK's exit from EU might impact how Scots vote this time around. Polls indicate that a majority of Scots wanted to remain within the EU.

Suella's sloppy comments on India provoked New Delhi's ire

Braverman also provoked the ire of Indian ministers when she said that the migrants who overstay their visas are Indians. This statement of hers, came at the heels of another statement, during an interview with Telegraph, where she said that “the British empire that brought Infrastructure, legal system, civil service, military to many countries and that’s a good thing." She added that she was "proud of the British Empire". 

A report from the Financial Times suggested that her comments led to a breakdown in the FTA (free trade agreement) negotiations, which was originally slated to be inked on Diwali. Suella Braverman is reportedly of Indian origin.

Ironically enough, the former leader of the Tory party and her boss David Cameron (not of Indian origin) had stated back in 2011 that many of the world's contemporary problems can be traced back to the (British) Empire. Dr. Jennifer Cassidy, a professor of Oxford University in response to Braverman's comments said, "No Suella, that’s called colonisation. We didn’t want you there. You took our language, culture and land. We didn’t need or want “your help”. Suella Braverman is horrifying."