Cooper declares home affairs issues “too important” for current “instability”

Yvette Cooper has demanded to know who in government is making decisions on national security following the resignation of Suella Braverman, declaring that borders, policing and security are “too important for this kind of instability”.

Braverman resigned as Home Secretary on Wednesday, with a data breach given as the official reason for her departure. Former Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has been confirmed as her replacement.

Addressing the Commons today, the Shadow Home Secretary said: “We’ve got the third Home Secretary in seven weeks. The cabinet was only appointed six weeks ago.

“The Home Secretary has been sacked, the Chancellor sacked, the chief whip sacked and then unsacked and the unedifying scenes of the Conservatives last night fighting like rats in a sack. This is a disgrace.”

The former Home Secretary revealed in her resignation letter that she had sent an official document from her personal email to a parliamentary colleague. She said the error constituted a “technical infringement of the rules” and that it was therefore “right” for her to go.

Braverman also declared in her letter that she has “concerns about the direction of this government”, adding: “Not only have we broken key pledges that we promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments.”

There have been reports that Braverman had disagreed with Liz Truss over plans to relax immigration rules in an attempt to boost economic growth.

Responding to Cooper’s urgent question on behalf of the government, parliamentary secretary for the Cabinet Office Brendan Clarke-Smith said Braverman had resigned after a “breach of cabinet confidentiality and the rules related to the security of cabinet business”.

He told MPs: “The Prime Minister has made clear the importance of upholding high standards in public life and her expectation that ministers should uphold these standards.”

“Ministers only remain in office so long as they retain the confidence of the Prime Minister. She is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards,” Clarke-Smith added.

Cooper argued: “The former Home Secretary has circulated a letter and that seems to contradict what the minister just said, because she said it was a draft to a written ministerial statement that was due to be published imminently and had already been briefed to MPs.

“Is that not true, and can he explain and tell us also what time the Home Secretary informed the Cabinet Secretary of the breach and whether a check’s been made and whether she sent other documents through personal emails – putting security at risk?”

The Labour frontbencher demanded to know if there had been a “row” about policy between the Prime Minister and Braverman, highlighting the “huge disagreements” between the two on issues including drugs policy, the Rwanda asylum seeker scheme and trade talks with India.

Cooper said: “What we know is that the former Home Secretary has been running her ongoing leadership campaign whilst the current Home Secretary is too busy to come to the House because he’s doing his spreadsheets on the numbers for whoever he is backing to come next.

“But who is making decisions on our national security? Not the Prime Minister, not the past or current Home Secretaries. Borders, policing, security are too important for this kind of instability just as people’s livelihoods are too important for the economic instability that this Conservative Party has created.

“It is not fair on people, and to quote the former Home Secretary: this is indeed a total “coalition of chaos”. Why should the country have to put up with this for a single extra day?”

Braverman’s resignation follows the departure of Kwasi Kwarteng last week, who was sacked as Chancellor by Truss amid the ongoing economic turmoil that has followed the mini-Budget last month.