Suella Braverman: what did Home Secretary say about Manston migrant centre and email security breaches?

The Home Secretary as had a rough beginning to her time in Rishi Sunak’s government.

Suella Braverman first faced criticism after been re-hired to the role, only six days after she was forced to resign over an apparent security leak. The Prime Minister faced backlash for the re-appointment, although he defended his decision saying that Braverman has “learned from her mistake”.

The outrage over her reappointment has not been the only issue Braverman has been having to deal with. The Home Secretary faced further criticism for overcrowding in migrant processing centres, which has been highlighted further after the petrol bomb attack on a Border Force immigration centre in Dover.

Facing disapproval from her parliamentary colleagues, Braverman addressed MPs at the House of Commons, where she defended her record in the role of Home Secretary. Here’s everything she had to say about the situations at hand.

What did Suella Braverman say about overcrowded migrant centres?

The Home Secretary faced accusations that she had ignored legal advice that people were being held in migrant centres for an unlawful amount of time without being processed. She also faced accusations that she blocked plans to move 1,000 people from the Manston centre, with severe overcrowding taking place after people were moved from the Dover immigration centre following the petrol bomb attack.

Braverman, who was formally the Attorney General before taking up the role of Home Secretary, was adamant in saying that she did not ignore any legal advice. Amid pledging to visit the Manston site, Braverman said: “I have never ignored legal advice, as a former Attorney General I know the importance of taking legal advice into account.”

Despite reports that she had been warned for weeks before the Dover attack that the Manston centre was succumbing to overcrowding, Braverman insisted that she was not able to find enough beds at short notice to send at least 1,000 people away from the centre.

Critics, many of whom are Tory MPs, noted that Braverman and her predecessor Priti Patel differed in action on the matter. Many said that while Patel was Home Secretary, overcrowding was not an issue as she was able to accomodate any overcrowding quickly.

Braverman said in parliament: “At every point I have worked hard to find alternative accommodation to relieve the pressure at Manston. What I have refused to do is to prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay.”

In addition to defending her record on migration, Braverman caused uproar in the Commons when she told her fellow MPs “let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress”, while also describing the number of people arriving at Dover via boats crossing the Channel as an “invasion on our southern coast”. Despite her party being in power for the past 12 years, Braverman added: “The system is broken. Illegal immigration is out of control.”

What did Suella Braverman say about her security email leaks?

Branded ‘Leaky Sue’ due to her security breaches, Braverman’s re-appointment to Home Secretary was met with harsh criticism. Sunak faced calls to remove her during his first PMQs session.

While the Prime Minister has defended her by saying that Braverman was “learned from her mistakes”, it has now been revealed that the Home Secretary had actually sent confidential documents to her personal email on six seperate occasions - one of which she resigned over under Liz Truss.

Despite concern over her security competancy in the role, the Home Secretary inisted that she has dealt wit the matter “transparently and comprehensively”. She added that the email leaks in question posed “no risk to national security”.

Labour’s Yvette Cooper pointed tough questions toward Braverman during the House of Commons session, saying: “Every day since her reappointment there have been more stories about possible security or ministerial code breaches. How is anybody supposed to have confidence in her given the serious responsibilities of the Home Secretary for security standards and public safety?”

The Home Secretary batted off accusations that she was unfit for office as a result of the security breaches, saying: “None of the documents in question concerned national security, intelligence agency or cybersecurity matters, and did not pose any risk to national security.”

Braverman was also said to have accessed the official documents from her personal email as she was trying to open the document while on a video call on her work phone. The incident in which she resigned over involved her sending a draft ministerial document on immigration policy to Tory backbench MP Sir John Hayes, while also accidentally including a member of MP Andrew Percy’s staff in the email also.

Concerns over the Home Secretary’s security breaches come following reports that former Prime Minister Liz Truss had her phone hacked by Russia. The hacking was said to have taken place during the summer, while she was still Foreign Secretary and campaigning to become leader of the Conservative Party, with The Mail On Sunday reporting that Boris Johnson had suppressed the information from getting out during the leadership race.