Suella Braverman’s brief statement on being sacked suggests the departing home secretary has left a lot in the locker as she contemplates her next move.
To not have released a blindside now will be due at least in part to Rishi Sunak’s rather clever strategic move in bringing back David Cameron, which as well as being two fingers to the hard right wing of the Tory party has also ensured that Suella has been denied the headlines, which is shrewd.
However, she will not take this lying down and without the inherent public megaphone afforded to a home secretary she will need to keep her profile up to maintain her position as the main Tory leadership candidate from the hard right.
She will not want to disappear like Priti Patel (remember her?) and she will be acutely aware of the incipient plans of that wing of the party to parachute in Nigel Farage as soon as the next election is over.
So what can we expect her to do? Fundamentally, oppose and criticise everything that gets her in the headlines, but in particular, expect her to:
– Front a very organized campaign to get the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, with added vigour if the Supreme Court rules against the Rwanda plan
– Intervene on the treatment of asylum seekers and argue for the government to spend less money on hosting them
– Mount a campaign arguing that the government should reduce taxes before the next election (despite all economic analysis cautioning against doing so) and specifically that Inheritance Tax, which the far right likes to call a death tax, should be abolished. This despite the obvious point that most inheritances are taxed as a result of increased wealth from increasing primary residence property prices, which means that the wealth created has never before been taxed whether as income or capital gains
– Continue the hard right tradition of inventing fictional Labour policies (seven bins etc) to which she can then state her utter opposition
– Seek to revive the Brexit wars by arguing that the problem with Brexit was not that it was a bad idea in the first place but was somehow subverted by shadowy forces
Suella wants to be the champion of the hard right of the Tory Party and like Truss before her has shown herself willing to spout any old nonsense if that will get her prominence and support among that group. Up to now, and believe it or not, she has been restrained by being in office. No longer, now this politician whose only noticeable talent is self-publicity is about to turn up the volume. She could say absolutely anything. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.
Related: Constitutional Peasants: You don’t vote for foreign secretaries!
