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Suella Braverman could soon find out the true cost of losing friends and alienating people. The Home Secretary now finds herself at loggerheads with Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker, after his camp moved to distance themselves from her rhetoric.
The row stems from remarks Braverman made earlier this year. She claimed that the scourge of grooming gangs in the UK was predominantly driven by ‘British-Pakistani men’. Her comments caused widespread outrage, and even left a sour taste amongst some of her colleagues.
However, one ally she may not have expected to upset was Steve Baker. The politician, once known as ‘the hardman of Brexit’, is understood to have withdrawn his support for Suella Braverman. This, despite backing her in the Conservative leadership race last year.
As per media reports on Sunday, Baker would no longer consider backing Braverman in any future campaigns for the top job. This is a significant blow for the controversial minister, given that Baker is considered a highly-influential figure within the party.
One insider told MailOnline the following, expressing concerns about how ‘unwise’ her statements were.
“If she had said this is a problem predominantly carried out by white men in their own homes but that in some areas it was carried out by Pakistani men and covered up for political reasons, that would have been fine. But she has heaped shame upon innocent men. It is not that she is stupid but that she is unwise.”
Braverman had previously argued that British Pakistani males ‘hold values totally at odds’ with the rest of the country. The NSPCC was compelled to warn the Home Secretary that her remarks could ‘create a new blind-spot’ in efforts to curb child abuse.
A Home Office report, commissioned in 2020, also concluded that child sexual abuse gangs in the UK ‘are most commonly made up of white men’. However, Braverman has refused to back down in the row – and it could prove fatal for her leadership ambitions.
