Home secretary Suella Braverman has said that she did not leak any top secret or market sensitive data when she sent a document via her private email address, a move which culminated in her resignation on October 19.
Having resigned from her post under then prime minister Liz Truss, Braverman was later reinstated to the top job in the Home Office by Truss’ successor, Rishi Sunak.
Braverman’s mistake that led to her standing down saw her breach ministerial code by sharing a draft immigration plan with backbench MP, Sir John Hayes.
The document included “high-level proposals” around “liberalising our migration rules” and was also sent in error to an employee of Conservative MP, Andrew Percy, the BBC reports.
While Braverman insisted that the document “did not contain any information relating to national security, the intelligence agencies, cyber security or law enforcement”, she acknowledged that she had broken the ministerial code twofold in what she had done.
The two offences revolved around sharing high-level and confidential material with a backbencher and secondly by using a private email address to distribute the information.
While maintaining that her error had not posed a security risk, Braverman did concede that she’d sent official documents to her private email account six times previously.
However, the home secretary claims that each of these occasions were “in accordance” with official guidance in place at the time and she'd acted in this way to enable her to read documents on her government phone while taking part in meetings.
The prime minister defended his decision to reinstate Braverman at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament and his spokesman has reiterated that the home secretary has his unwavering support.
The spokesman said: “Clearly, there was an error of judgement and she has taken responsibility.” Sunak had said that Braverman had “made an error of judgment” but had “recognised that, raised the matter and accepted her mistake.”
The PM also said that bringing Braverman back into cabinet would help provide more "experience and stability" in government.
Photo by UK Government on Wikimedia Commons
