Braverman Defenders' Own Goal

As Rishi Sunak continues to prevaricate over Home Secretary Suella Braverman and whether she broke the ministerial code by tasking her Civil Servants with attempts to arrange a one-on-one speed awareness course, with his latest delaying tactic being to ask his ethics advisor to rule on the matter, it is clear Ms Braverman herself is rattled, and badly.

Sadly for her, the tactic that would be deployed in order to dissuade further enquiries from our free and fearless press was let slip by those still prepared to put up with the work environment at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph: “Braverman ‘smear’ fears over curbs on migrants … Speeding fine row is concerted effort to discredit her” tells the headline.

Says who? Don’t laugh too loudly: “say Home Secretary’s allies”. Which almost certainly means Herself Personally Now. Those who remember her appearing on BBC Question Time and claiming that any criticism of her party being funded by Russian money was racist will recognise her fingerprints on that one. Pity about the own goal later in the article (read to the end).

As John Stevens at the Mirror has told readers of “The FOUR TIMES Suella Braverman's aide denied she'd been done for speeding - transcript … A transcript shows that the Home Secretary's special adviser insisted it was ‘nonsense’ that she'd been done for speeding when contacted by the Mirror six weeks ago”, Ms Braverman was making less and less sense.

She arrived at 10 Downing Street and was quizzed on that speed awareness course, responding that she was there to “stop the boats”. Then, as Pippa Crerar of the Guardian observed, “Suella Braverman tells MPs: ‘Last summer I was speeding, I regret that. I paid the fine and took the penalty. At no point did I attempt to evade sanction’. (That's not the allegation, it's that she asked officials to arrange a private driving awareness course)”. Indeed.

But it was Paul Waugh of the i Paper who had the most comprehensive and indeed most damning news. “Some MP[s] think [Rishi Sunak is] micromanaging her [department because] he doesn't trust her to do her job properly … One former minister who worked with Braverman tells me: ‘I don’t often say people are completely useless, but if her desk had not been occupied I wouldn’t have noticed’”.That won’t be stopping many boats, then.

There was more. “Suella Braverman says ‘at no point did I seek to evade the sanction’ of speeding penalty points. She says Labour only asking the Q to distract from its failure to back Govt re paedophiles/migration”.

See last paragraph of headline article for howler

And more. “Pressed by [Yvette Cooper] whether she authorised her special adviser to deny she had a committed a speeding offence, [Suella Braverman] signally refuses to answer the question … Asked at least 4 times now if she asked civil servants to find her a private speed awareness course, [she] again refuses to answer. Replies with almost exactly the same formula”.

So how does the Tel spin this? “Miriam Cates, a Tory MP and ally of Mrs Braverman, said it was ‘extremely worrying’ that the Home Secretary was being subjected to personal attacks and ‘a concerted effort to discredit her’ in a similar way to last October. 'It is no coincidence that it’s in the same week that she had been very vocal about the need to put proper limits on legal migration which is clearly a contentious issue in Government’”. Do go on.

“She has had a lot of profile and prominence. There are many people who don’t agree with her view that we should limit legal immigration. If you put two and two together, it is perfectly possible it’s politically motivated. It is shocking anyone would leak this private information”. Paranoid, much?

And Ms Cates wasn’t the only one seeing Dark Forces at work. “Craig Mackinlay, another Tory MP, said: ‘It wasn’t at all unreasonable for a Home Secretary to do what she has asked. I see nothing wrong with that. I would call that fairly good common sense and then decide to take the points.’" But he made no sense at all. Except to be sure she’d done nothing wrong.

Then the Tel sold the pass. “Mrs Braverman was issued with a speeding notice by police last year after being caught outside London when she was attorney general … She was offered the choice of paying the fine and receiving three points, attending a speed awareness course in lieu of points and the fine or challenging the speeding notice. It was at this point that she asked civil servants if a private course could be arranged” [My emphasis].

Her defenders have answered the question put several times this afternoon in the Commons. The Telegraph has asserted that she asked civil servants if a private speed awareness course could be arranged. So either she’s going to demand the paper pull that comment, or she’s bang to rights.

Oh what a giveaway! Maybe the Tel sacked too many staff. Just a thought.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton