Braverman apology “leaves more unanswered questions”, Cooper says

Yvette Cooper has warned that an apology given by Suella Braverman for a breach of security rules that saw her forced to stand down as Home Secretary earlier this month “leaves more unanswered questions”.

Writing to Diana Johnson MP today, Braverman apologised for sending papers to her personal email account and then forwarding them to Conservative backbench MP John Hayes – and admitted that she had used her personal email for official business six times during her short stint as Home Secretary.

Braverman was made Home Secretary by Truss, the then Prime Minister, on September 6th. In the letter to the home affairs select committee today, Braverman said none of the documents sent between September 6th and October 19th – when she stepped down – were “classified as secret or top secret”.

She told the committee that there was no market-sensitive information in the draft written ministerial statement she sent to her private email address and then on to backbencher John Hayes. She also said Truss had “specifically” asked her to engage with parliamentary colleagues on the content of the planned statement.

Braverman said much of the document had already been briefed to MPs already, “at the request” of Truss, but acknowledged that “some sentences” had not been agreed by all departments.

Cooper argued that the letter “fails to answer all the serious questions about the Home Secretary’s irresponsible conduct and shows that neither she nor the Prime Minister recognise the gravity of these issues”.

The Shadow Home Secretary also highlighted that the six breaches admitted to in the document amounted to one per week for the short time she was in the position and said there are “significant inconsistencies” in the information in the letter to Johnson and the original resignation letter.

“There are also still no answers about alleged security breaches and leak investigations while she was Attorney General or about whether the Prime Minister ignored the Cabinet Secretary’s advice in reappointing her just six days after she was forced to resign,” Cooper said.

“It is also astonishing that as Home Secretary in charge of national security and former Attorney General she has therefore needed to seek an additional briefing on ‘what constitutes appropriate use of government and personal IT’.

“This therefore leaves more unanswered questions, more confusion and more chaos from the Home Secretary and the government. It shows why Rishi Sunak was so irresponsible in reappointing her to her post.”

Braverman endorsed Sunak in his latest leadership campaign, following the resignation of Truss – effectively ending Boris Johnson’s bid to become Prime Minister again. The new Prime Minister reappointed Braverman as Home Secretary the next day.