‘By the end he was just left shouting at the members of the audience’ - Week #4 of the general election campaign and the point where Sunak had clearly had enough of you lot

During the third week of the general election campaign, Sunak would launch his party manifesto by heaping praise on the achievements of his government’s former home secretaries. Two names were missing, however. 

One was Grant Shapps, whose 6 days in the role was perhaps not as transformative as the member for Welwyn Hatfield had envisioned, if anybody remembered that Grant Shapps was home secretary at all. 

Another conspicuously absent from Sunak’s praise was Suella Braverman. 

Such a move would likely have been a deliberate choice for Sunak, especially given Braverman's notorious history of mistakes, poor judgement, and frequent mishaps during her tenure in the Home Office, fresh in the minds of most traumatised voters due to the fact that Braverman herself would do her utmost, either knowingly or unknowingly, to draw attention to her ineptitude often by creating as much noise as possible.

Her popularity among the general public fluctuated with her appearances, often declining in response to her frequent missteps and errors in judgement. The more the seemingly feral Braverman spoke, the less she endeared herself to voters. As her announcements grew louder, became more frequent and more divisive, public disapproval increased.

And this, in Braverman’s head, to offend the sensibilities of most people, often including the Prime Minister himself, was somehow the point. 

Before this, Braverman briefly served as Home Secretary during Liz Truss’s short tenure as Prime Minister. Her appointment stands out, notably, as one of the few informed decisions made by Truss during her tumultuous time in office. Braverman repeatedly sent official-sensitive documents from her personal email to Sir John Hayes, a fellow MP and close ally. This breach of the ministerial code, due to the potentially damaging implications on market-sensitive growth forecasts, led to either her dismissal or forced resignation by Truss - depending on whontou ask regarding insider accounts of the events.

Braverman's departure became a key catalyst, intensifying the sense that Truss' government was rapidly unravelling after her disastrous Autumn fiscal budget. Indeed, the day after Braverman left office, Truss also stepped down. This sequence of events gave Braverman a sense of having played a significant role in shaping political outcomes.

This sense of importance followed her when Sunak surprisingly reappointed Braverman as Home Secretary in Autumn 2022. To those on the far right - mostly supporters of Braverman - this move was seen as symbolic and pivotal in appeasing anti-Sunak sentiment. In contrast, moderates within the Conservatives viewed it with suspicion and disapproval.

In Sunak’s first address to the nation after he became Prime Minister, he pledged to uphold "integrity, professionalism, and accountability at every level" of government. This statement seemed immediately contradictory when he reappointed Braverman to one of the great offices of state, despite her having breached the ministerial code just a few weeks earlier. It would be a statement Sunak would later come to regret for every oversight of standards that would appear endemic to the Conservative Party.

For Braverman, her reappointment made her 'untouchable,' as MPs described at the time, yet her tenure was marked by deliberate provocation, controversy, and, above all, political incompetence - mostly centred around the impracticalities of the government’s migration and asylum policy.