United Kingdom Home Secretary, Suella Braverman has faced a backlash from Public Servants after returning to the role she was forced to resign from six days earlier.
The backlash came after it emerged the Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Ethics Team (PET) had raised concerns about the reappointment of Ms Braverman (pictured) by incoming Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak.
However, the group does not have the power to block it going ahead.
Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case is believed to have then set out to Mr Sunak why Ms Braverman was judged to have breached the Civil Service Code, which led to her earlier resignation, but made no recommendation.
General Secretary of the FDA, which represents senior Public Servants, Dave Penman said the move showed political expediency when any Public Servant acting in the same way would have lost their security clearance.
He said this sent a clear signal that Ministers could act with impunity and called for the appointment of a new Ethics Adviser.
Ms Braverman was forced out of her post by former Prime Minister, Liz Truss for using her personal email to send sensitive documents.
Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper wrote to Mr Case, saying an investigation was crucial to establish the “extent of this and other possible security breaches”.
Ms Cooper raised speculation during an urgent question in Parliament that Ms Braverman was previously investigated for a leak of information “relating to the security service” when she was Attorney-General.
This related to a story about the Government’s plan to apply for an injunction against the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to stop it from identifying a spy who was accused of using his position to terrorise his former partner.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “We do not comment on alleged leak investigations.”
Mr Sunak said Ms Braverman had made an error of judgement, but she recognised that.
“She raised the matter and she accepted her mistake,” Mr Sunak said.
“That’s why I was delighted to welcome her back.”
London, 29 October 2022
