Suella Braverman - In Hole, Still Digging

Like a grotesque game of whack-a-mole, the attempts by Suella Braverman, unwisely reinstated as Home Secretary by incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to cover over her serial ineptitude only result in one hole being temporarily plugged, only for two more to open up. This was illustrated superbly by her singularly ill-advised Commons performance yesterday.

Ms Braverman had used her personal email account to send classified documents, on occasion to recipients who should not have seen them. This she admitted. Then she admitted it had happened six times during her first spell at the Home Office, to the suspicion of those who wondered how many times it had happened when she had been Attorney General, or elsewhere.

That put her closer to the exit door: what happened in the Commons yesterday put her yet closer. She had appeared before the inquisition of MPs to answer questions about the Manston detention centre, now housing around 4,000 refugees, though its maximum capacity is around 1,600.

She could have block booked hotels to take those having asylum claims processed; she did not. Conditions inside the Manston centre were bad, and getting worse. She was questioned; she had no credible response. And then it happened, the moment when a brown person threw rather a lot of people like her under the bus. She came over all far right and intolerant.

Adam Bienkov of Byline Times noted the outburst: “The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which is not … Let's stop pretending they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows this is not true”. The House of Commons Library briefing note on asylum claims suggests otherwise.

It notes the recent refusal rate for asylum claims of 28%, and that “In the period from 2004 to 2020, around three-quarters of applicants refused asylum at initial decision lodged an appeal and almost one third of those appeals were allowed”, which suggests around 80% were indeed refugees.

Then came doubling down on the bigotry, as singularly unpleasant Lee Anderson had his 30p worth. “We’ve got Albanian criminals leaving Albania, which is a safe country, the same criminals setting up shop in France. They’re then leaving France, which is a safe country, and coming to the UK across the Channel. And then when they get into accommodation, we’ve got the opposition parties saying the accommodation is not good enough”.

Let’s have another look at that House of Commons Library note, shall we? “In 2021, 43% were nationals of Middle Eastern countries, 28% of asylum applicants were nationals of African countries, 18% were nationals of Asian countries, and 12% were from Europe”. But Ms Braverman had used Anderson’s intervention to play the victim and suggest that almost all asylum applicants were being put up in hotels. They were therefore ungrateful.

This, together with her protesting that she was the victim of a witch-hunt, that “some people want to get rid of me … let them try”, was accompanied by her declaration that the system for processing asylum applications was “broken”. She may be yet more shocked to know which party has been in power for the past 12 years and not fixed it. And as for “invasion”, well.

“The annual number of asylum applications to the UK peaked in 2002 at 84,132. After that the number fell sharply to reach a twenty-year low point of 17,916 in 2010. It rose steadily again throughout the 2010s and then sharply in 2021, to 48,540, which was the highest annual number since 2003” tells the House of Commons Library briefing note. And there is more.

“In 2020, there were around 6 asylum applications for every 10,000 people living in the UK. Across the EU27 there were 11 asylum applications for every 10,000 people”. Perhaps those EU member states are bing invaded a little bit more. Oh, and that second hole opening up? Here’s Charlotte Lynch at LBC.

“Senior Home Office source tells me Home Sec refused to sign off on hotel bookings for migrants at Manston last week ‘because they were in Tory areas’ … Source close to Manston claims Suella Braverman only approved three hotels last week which were in Labour constituencies. Priti Patel accused of doing the same when she was Home Sec and ‘they saw this coming’”.

Whoops! And the fact remains that Manston is supposed to accommodate asylum applicants for no more than 24 hours, but some have been there more than 30 days. Refugee numbers are not historically high; there are more small boat crossings of the Channel because other routes have closed.

Suella Braverman has resorted to the language of the far right, and very soon after a refugee facility in Dover was petrol bombed. The problem for her is that, once the mob is whipped up, it will not be in her gift, nor that of her press cheerleaders, to pacify it. But one example can be made: her dismissal.

Ms Braverman was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.

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