Suella Braverman’s immigration speech felt like a bid for a job with no vacancy

In a large central London auditorium complete with marble columns, arched windows and English oak panelling, Suella Braverman set out a similarly grand stall for a future tilt at the Conservative leadership - or, at least, it felt a bit like that.

The Home Secretary appeared today (May 15) at the National Conservatism conference - an event dedicated to “national independence” and the “revival of unique national traditions” - to talk about immigration but she had plenty to say on other issues that really mattered to the people attending.

Undeterred by two Extinction Rebellion protesters who disrupted proceedings, Braverman hit out at “self-appointed gurus, experts and elites”. She said it wasn’t the government’s responsibility to “legislate away differences in work ethic”. And she got a round of applause for mentioning the “unfashionable fact” that “100% of women do not have a penis”.

But while there were plenty of references to the culture wars, she also spoke at length about her family background (her parents moved to the UK from Mauritius and Kenya) and dismissed the idea that, as a woman of colour, “it was hypocritical” of her to push for lower migration.

Conservative supporters who sit on the right of the party very much appreciate this “anti-groupthink” attitude and willingness to be a flagbearer for traditional values that, in their view, Rishi Sunak isn’t doing enough to champion.

Eyebrows were raised when it emerged what Braverman was going to say in her speech about the Home Office brief she holds. She stressed the need for the Tories to recommit to the pledge they made at the 2019 election to create a “high-skilled, high wage economy” less reliant on foreign workers, and to get overall immigration down.

This is already formal government policy, and Downing Street was forced this lunchtime to field questions about whether Braverman and Number 10 were still on the same page. The PM’s spokesman said she “continued to represent the UK government views on all issues relating to the Home Office, as you would expect”.

Braverman didn’t openly criticise Sunak or his policies - but some of her backbench Conservative colleagues have done in recent days. At the same conference this morning, former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said the decision to scale back plans to scrap thousands of EU laws was “pathetically under-ambitious”. He then suggested the new requirement for voter ID in elections (brought in by the government he was part of in 2022) was “gerrymandering”.

On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the veteran MP John Redwood said ministers needed to make “big changes on Brexit, economic growth and migration” - and refused to say whether Sunak should lead the Conservatives into the next election.

And over the weekend, at a different conference in Bournemouth organised by supporters of Boris Johnson, former Home Secretary Priti Patel said the Tories owed her old boss a “debt of gratitude” - suggesting he should “come back” in some form to “re-galvanise and re-energise the grassroots”. She did, however, stop short of recommending Johnson’s return to the top job, saying that would not “do us the world of good at all”.

If Braverman does have fresh leadership ambitions (she ran in the contest to succeed Johnson last summer and was knocked out in the second round) they are currently just that - ambitions. There is no vacancy in Number 10, and the bulk of the Tory parliamentary party remains broadly supportive of Sunak - knowing that division will only increase the likelihood of them losing their seats next time round. Yesterday, the Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps was out on the airwaves playing down the idea of an internal split, and claiming the various conferences and gatherings of recent days were a sign the Tories were “buzzing with ideas”.

Tonight, Sunak is hosting all his MPs at a Downing Street reception organised to celebrate the Coronation. On the menu: pies from his own constituency in Richmond in North Yorkshire. It’s fair to assume there’ll be a few big slices of charm and arm-twisting alongside the steak and ale.