Suella Braverman: Brexit-supporting barrister who has risen through Tory ranks

The Fareham MP was the first person to launch a bid to become the next prime minister but later supported Liz Trusswho
Suella Braverman has served as Attorney General (Aaron Chown/PA)
PA Wire
Flora Thompson6 September 2022
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A barrister who said the courts should stay out of politics and criticised the civil service for being too “woke” has risen through the Tory ranks to her most senior government appointment to date.

Suella Braverman, who became the first person to launch a bid to become the next prime minister before being knocked out of the race and deciding to back Liz Truss, has held on to her place in Cabinet and gained a promotion to Home Secretary, taking over from Priti Patel.

The 42-year-old was made the Government’s most senior lawyer in February 2020, taking the role of Attorney General amid Boris Johnson’s growing battle with the judiciary.

During this time she became the first Cabinet-level minister to take maternity leave after special legislation had to be passed by Parliament to allow her to take time away from her ministerial duties.

The MP for Fareham in Hampshire since 2015 studied law at the University of Cambridge, before gaining a masters at the Sorbonne in Paris. She also qualified as an attorney in New York and was called to the Bar in Britain in 2005, specialising in public law and judicial review.

As a barrister she has defended the Home Office in immigration cases, the Parole Board in challenges from prisoners, and the Ministry of Defence over injuries sustained in battle.

Suella Braverman, made a bid to become the next prime minister earlier this year (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
PA Wire

In a comment piece for the Conservative Home website two years ago, the Brexit supporter said Parliament must “retrace power ceded to the courts”.

The article followed comments she made the previous year on Newsnight, where she said she hoped legal reforms would restore the principle of “judicial deference'”, adding: “Which means that our courts and our judges generally stay out of politics.”

The seeds of the government’s battle with the courts were sown during the Brexit rows, when campaigner Gina Miller successfully challenged the Government over then-prime minister Theresa May’s right to trigger Article 50 without a vote in Parliament.

The Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that Mr Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament was unlawful fuelled Tory suspicions about judicial activism.

Ms Braverman clashed with defendants, dubbed the Colston Four (PA)
PA Archive

Since then the Government has come under fire for seeking to blame “left-wing activist” lawyers for challenging its decisions through the courts, particularly those involving immigration and asylum cases – something Ms Patel reiterated in her resignation letter to Boris Johnson on Monday night.

Earlier this year, Ms Braverman came under fire for saying she was considering whether to refer the case of four people cleared of tearing down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston to the Court of Appeal.

She later defended the comments saying it was “entirely” within her remit to do so, after the acquittal prompted a debate about the criminal justice system because the defendants, dubbed the Colston Four, opted to stand trial in front of a jury and did not deny involvement in the incident.

“Instead they claimed the presence of the statue was a hate crime and it was therefore not an offence to remove the statue.

Ms Braverman is also said to have criticised the civil service as being too “woke”, reportedly lashing out earlier this year at the decision by the Government Legal Department to go on “divisive” diversity training at the taxpayers’ expense.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in