British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made some sweeping changes to his cabinet in an autumn reshuffle prompted by a scandal-hit home secretary.
Suella Braverman has been sacked after being accused of inflaming tensions with her comments about a pro-Palestinian rally in London on the weekend which attracted 300,000 people.
Braverman called it a “hate march” and said the people taking part were “thugs.” Braverman has been replaced by James Cleverley, who moves from the foreign ministry to the interior ministry.
Meanwhile former Prime Minister David Cameron makes a surprise return to frontline politics with an appointment as foreign minister.
It’s a highly unusual move for a former UK leader to take a role in another government.
The government says Cameron will be appointed to Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords.
Sunak had been under growing pressure to fire Braverman from one of the most senior jobs in government, responsible for handling immigration and policing.
In an op-ed published in The Times on Thursday, Braverman suggested police had been more lenient with recent protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which she described as “hate marches,” than with right-wing protesters or football hooligans.
The article had not been given the green light by Downing Street, contrary to the usual protocol.
Opposition parties accused Braverman, a divisive figure popular with the authoritarian wing of the governing Conservative Party, of emboldening far-right groups with her comments.
Her comments were also seen as undermining the operational independence of the country’s police.
This is not the first time that the 43-year-old has courted controversy.
As home secretary, Braverman championed the government’s stalled plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain by boat to Rwanda.
She previously described refugee arrivals as an “invasion” and warned of a migratory “hurricane”. More recently, she claimed that homelessness was a “lifestyle choice”. (EuroNews)