UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman 'Sacked' After Row Over Pro-Palestine Rally
In a surprise move, ex-PM David Cameron was appointed as foreign secretary in the Cabinet reshuffle.
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Video Producer: Maaz Hasan
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
Suella Braverman, the United Kingdom's home secretary who is responsible for law and order, has reportedly been fired.
Pink-slipped: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday, 13 November, sacked the Indian-origin interior minister as part of a wider Cabinet reshuffle, Reuters reported.
Why it matters: Braverman's dismissal from the top job comes days after she criticised the London Police's handling of a pro-Palestinian march, which spurred calls from Opposition lawmakers as well as Conservative Party members to remove her from office.
Of note: Incumbent UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has taken Braverman's place, Downing Street announced on X (formerly Twitter).
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has been appointed as the UK foreign secretary.
The backstory: Last week, Braverman wrote an article for The Times which explicitly denounced the alleged political bias of the London Police.
She alleged that the city's police force was being indulgent to pro-Palestinian marchers and Black Lives Matter demonstrators while clamping down on right-wing causes such as COVID-19 lockdown objectors.
Know more: Over 3,00,000 pro-Palestinian protesters joined the march in London on Saturday, 11 November, as per the report.
Then, far-right protesters reportedly clashed with the police, leading to the arrest of around 140 people.
Some perspective: "For many Londoners, the suggestion that the police are more sympathetic to the political left will seem laughable. The Metropolitan Police has in recent years been embroiled in a series of scandals which have highlighted the persistence of sexism, racism, Islamophobia and homophobia in its ranks," former BBC India correspondent Andrew Whitehead wrote for The Quint last week.
"[Braverman's] hostile comments about illegal immigrants, the homeless, pro-Palestine demonstrators and now the police seem designed to burnish her reputation as the right-wing politician who speaks out on the issues others don’t address," he opined.
Next moves: According to Reuters, PM Sunak is expected to make more changes to his Cabinet in the days to come.
Between the lines: Sunak's Cabinet rejig has ruffled feathers among right-wing political leaders in the UK.
Conservative Party MP Andrea Jenkyns has sent a no-confidence letter to the 1922 committee which reads, "Enough is enough. If it wasn't bad enough that we have a party leader that the party members rejected, the polls demonstrate that the public reject him, and I am in full agreement. It is time for Rishi Sunak to go."
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