Suella Braverman - Beyond Belief

Not featuring on the front pages of our free and fearless press today, despite the media appetite for going after those on the left alleged to have dismissed or belittled Holocaust survivors, Suella Braverman, inexplicably elevated to the rank of Home Secretary, has been at her tone-deaf and intolerant worst, refused to say sorry, and appears to have misused Civil Service resources.

That is in addition to being called out by a Holocaust survivor, which, had it happened to someone in the Labour Party, would have been splashed across several front pages. What happened can be put directly: before a constituency meeting last Friday evening, Joan Salter MBE, who is 83 and whose family perished at the hands of the Third Reich, asked her a question.

The exchange was captured on video. “I am a child survivor of the Holocaust … In 1943, I was forced to flee my birthplace in Belgium and went across war-torn Europe and dangerous seas until I finally was able to come to the UK in 1947”. She came to the UK. But the rest of her family did not.

There was more. “When I hear you using words against refugees like ‘swarms’ and an ‘invasion’, I am reminded of the language used to dehumanise and justify the murder of my family and millions of others … Why do you find the need to use that kind of language?” What say Ms Braverman?

The Home Secretary deflected, talking at length about how her own parents came to the UK, as if this excused her use of language, before claiming “There is a huge problem that we have right now when it comes to illegal migration, the scale of which we have not known before”. Claiming asylum is not illegal, something one might have expected a cabinet minister to know.

Moreover, the main reason for what she was discussing - people arriving on the Channel coast in small boats - is because the Government of which she is a member has effectively closed off safe routes for those people to claim asylum, for instance, in their own country or elsewhere in mainland Europe. But she could at least say sorry and agree to tone down the rhetoric. Yes?

Er, no. “I won’t apologise for the language that I have used to demonstrate the scale of the problem … I’m not going to shy away from difficult truths nor am I going to conceal what is the reality that we are all watching … we have a problem with people exploiting our generosity, breaking our laws and undermining our system”. We have, whisper it quietly, a greater problem with dishonest and opportunist politicians. But she knew her audience.

As the Guardian report noted, “Braverman’s answer was greeted with applause from the audience”. That’s mighty white of you, Fareham people. But that was not all: despite this being a constituency meeting and therefore not Home Office business, that office’s official Twitter feed was soon being put to use to defend Ms Braverman. I shit you not.

“The Home Secretary attended an event last night and took questions, including on immigration policy … Footage of a conversation with a holocaust survivor is circulating online. The video has been heavily edited and doesn’t reflect the full exchange”. The full video is freely available. But do go on.

“The Home Secretary listened carefully to the testimony … She thanked her for sharing her story [no she didn’t] The Home Secretary also expressed her sympathy [no she didn’t] and set out why it is important to tackle illegal migration”. Seeking asylum is still not illegal. But there was more.

“Since the footage misrepresents the interaction about a sensitive area of policy, we have asked the organisation who posted the video to take it down”. It’s got Sweet Jack to do with the Home Office, whose Twitter account should not be used for party political ends. And in any case, it didn’t work.

Sonya Sceats, CEO of Freedom From Torture, told her followers “The Home Office asked us to take down our video. But we are standing our ground. Full video here so you can see for yourself how Braverman responded to Joan”. And the full video remains available as I type. Good for them.

Strangely, those who went after the Labour left with such fervour over allegations of minimising the Holocaust or dismissing the experiences of its survivors are today silent on Ms Braverman’s disgraceful behaviour, as tone-deaf as when Dawn Foster called her out for using the anti-Semitic “Cultural Marxism” trope, another Nazi-era conspiracy theory.

If she had represented Labour, though … I’ll just leave that one there.

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