Nick Robinson calls out Suella Braverman over leadership 'experience'

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Suella Braverman, 42, has thrown her hat into the ring to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister. The Tory leader resigned yesterday after a mutiny that saw more than 50 ministers and other officials resign from his Government. Mr Johnson was confronted by his Cabinet colleagues in Downing Street on Wednesday, who demanded that he step down immediately. As the leadership race to replace him hots up, some of the Cabinet have already ruled themselves out, including Dominic Raab and Michael Gove. However, ministers have already started setting out their own leadership bids, with Steve Baker and Tom Tugendhat among the runners and riders so far.

Ms Braverman was the first MP to declare a leadership bid as she chatted to ITV’s Robert Peston on Wednesday night.

Speaking to the presenter before Mr Johnson had even resigned, she vowed to wage a “war on wokeness” should she be handed the keys to Number 10.

Outlining her priorities, the Attorney General vowed to take an axe to political correctness in the UK.

She told Mr Peston: “We need to get rid of all of this woke rubbish and actually get back to a country where describing a man and a woman in terms of biology does not mean that you’re going to lose your job.”

During the interview – one of the most high-profile moments of her political career so far – Ms Braverman set out her vision for Britain.

She told Mr Peston: “I love this country; my parents came here with absolutely nothing.

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“It was Britain that gave them hope and security and opportunity, and this country’s offered me incredible opportunities in education and in my career.

“I owe a debt of gratitude to this country and to serve as Prime Minister would be the greatest honour, so yes, I will try.”

In a hint of what policies she would pursue as Prime Minister, the Attorney General addressed immigration, the cost of living crisis, and her support for Brexit — herself having campaigned for Britain to leave the EU.

She said: “I think fundamentally we need to deliver some proper tax cuts so that people can be living with the cost of living challenges in a more feasible way.”

Ms Braverman, who is on the right-wing of the Conservative Party, also said the size of Government needed to be scaled back to reduce spending, and that “we need to solve the problem of boats crossing the channel”.

She added: “We need to make sure the Brexit opportunities are felt across this country,” she added.”

The Tory politician has been Attorney General for England and Wales since February 2020.

Ms Braverman, who was raised in Wembley and read law at Queen’s College, University of Cambridge, was called to the bar in 2005, and specialised in public law and judicial review.

Although not an official Cabinet member, she regularly attends Cabinet meetings, including this week when she was snapped sharing a joke with colleagues on Tuesday.

Elected as the MP for the market town of Fareham in 2015, the QC has rarely made waves during her political career.

However, she did raise eyebrows in 2018 as she resigned as a UK junior Brexit minister from then-Prime Minister Theresa May’s Government in protest over her Brexit deal.

Recently, the Attorney General has lent her support to the Government’s controversial policy to send migrants to Rwanda.

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However, the MP has claimed that she is able to thrive on negative reactions to her political views.

In March, she told The Times: “If I get trolled and I provoke a bad response on Twitter I know I’m doing the right thing.

“Twitter is a sewer of left-wing bile. The extreme left pile on is often a consequence of sound conservative values.”

Ms Braverman shares two children with her husband Rael Braverman, who she married in February 2018.

Her parents are Christie and Uma Fernandes, who both have Indian heritage and came to the UK in the Sixties from Kenya and Mauritius.

Despite her bold plan for Britain, the bookies have Ms Braverman as one of the most unlikely successors to Mr Johnson, according to the latest odds.

Her unlikeliness as the next occupant of Downing Street saw her brutally mocked by her opposite number Emily Thornberry.

The Shadow Attorney General blasted the “brass neck” of the Tory leadership hopeful in an interview this week.

Speaking to HuffPost, she said: “Frankly, I don’t know where she gets the brass neck.

“But I do know the last thing we need in Downing Street right now is another deluded fantasist with a grossly inflated sense of their own abilities, a distant relationship with the truth, and no respect whatsoever for the rule of law.”

Ms Thornberry, who claims Ms Braverman helped plunge the country into chaos by giving Mr Johnson bad advice, also took a sarcastic swipe at Ms Braverman in the House of Commons on Thursday.

She said: “Can I say what an honour it is to be at this Dispatch Box facing the next Prime Minister, as she awaits the call from the Palace.”

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