Suella Braverman news – latest: Decision looms on home secretary’s future

The prime minister is set to make a decision on Suella Braverman’s future as home secretary following suggestions her alleged request for support from Home Office officials may have breached the ministerial code.

Rishi Sunak, who was questioned about the home secretary’s handling of her speeding ticket while in Japan for the G7 summit, will also seek advice from his ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus about how to proceed.

“The prime minister has always followed the proper process in these matters, and will consult the independent adviser upon his return to London,” a No 10 source said.

The Conservative Party leader is also expected to speak to cabinet secretary Simon Case following suggestions it was the Cabinet Office that ordered Home Office officials not to offer Mrs Braverman advice on securing a private course.

According to The Sunday Times, Mrs Braverman asked Home Office civil servants to help organise a one-to-one driving awareness course as she was keen not to have to accept three points on her licence for a speeding offence.

Officials are said to have refused the request, so Mrs Braverman allegedly turned to a political aide to assist her in attempting to arrange an alternative to having to attend a course with other motorists.

The speeding offence reportedly took place on a road outside London last year when Mrs Braverman was serving as attorney general.

According to The Daily Mirror, the home secretary’s special adviser had repeatedly denied that Mrs Braverman had been caught speeding when a reporter from the newspaper put the suggestion to them last month.

A spokesman for the home secretary said she regretted speeding and had since accepted the points and paid the fine.

Suella Braverman should quit if found to have breached the ministerial code by asking civil servants to arrange a private speed awareness course for her, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said.

Labour leader Sir Keir said her actions appear to have been “inappropriate” and she should resign if she is found to have breached the ministerial code.

Former Conservative Party chair Sir Jake Berry said the home secretary clearly had “questions to answer”, while another former Tory minister told The Independent that the allegations were “the final straw”.

Labour and the Lib Dems have called for an investigation into whether Ms Braverman broke the ministerial code – and told the PM to come to parliament on Monday to explain what he knew about the claims.

After the home secretary was caught speeding outside London while attorney general last summer, she reportedly asked Home Office aides to help organise a one-to-one course to help her avoid incurring points on her licence.

Nick Freeman, known as Mr Loophole for winning celebrities’ cases on legal technicalities, said providers often prefer high-profile people to take private speed awareness courses as it is “less distracting” for others on it.

However, he said Mrs Braverman should have treated her alleged speeding offence as a “private matter” by getting a lawyer to deal with it.

Mr Freeman told the PA news agency: “(Mrs Braverman) wanted to do a one-to-one, there’s nothing untoward about that, I’ve had many clients who have arranged a one-to-one.

“On occasions the course providers contacted us and said, ‘I know you’re asking for such and such, would you mind if we have the course just exclusively for that particular person?’

“The reason behind it tends to be they want people attending the course to concentrate on the contents of the course and not on the people who are actually at the course.

“So if you’ve got a world-class footballer or world-class actor or musician, you don’t want people looking thinking, ‘oh wow, guess who’s on my course!’, they want to be tuning into what the course is about.

“So there’s nothing untoward about that, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he has never done a speed awareness course amid claims about home secretary Suella Braverman’s handling of a ticket.

Asked on BBC Radio 5 Live, the Labour leader said: “No, I haven’t done a speed awareness course.”

Civil servants are “not there to support the personal interests of a minister,” Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, has said.

Speaking about claims the home secretary asked civil servants to help her to arrange a private speed awareness course, Mr Penman told Sky News: “Civil servants are publicly funded. They’re paid for by you and me. They’re not there to support the personal interests of a minister.

“They don’t do their shopping, they don’t look after their children and they don’t sort out their speeding fine.

“That’s really important as well. They’re there to work for you and I.”

Mr Penman added: “The question clearly is ‘Did she abuse her position?’ And what did she ask civil servants to do? The only way to clear this up is an investigation under the ministerial code.”

Home secretary Suella Braverman’s actions appear to have been “inappropriate” and she should resign if she is found to have breached the ministerial code, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.

He told Good Morning Britain: “I don’t know all the facts but it looks to me as though the home secretary’s actions were inappropriate and they should be investigated.”

He said he would remind Rishi Sunak that the prime minister talked about “integrity, about transparency and honesty” on entering office and should follow through with a proper independent investigation.

Sir Keir said he did not want to get “ahead of himself” in calling for Ms Braverman to resign but said: “I think if she’s breached the ministerial code she should go … in the end it’s the ministerial code that matters.”

Rishi Sunak has declined to back Suella Braverman amid allegations that she asked civil servants to help her avoid getting points on her driving licence for speeding.

The prime minister was asked by reporters whether he had full confidence in the Home Secretary – but replied that he did not know the “full details” of events and had not spoken to her.

When questioned at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Mr Sunak would not say whether he would launch an investigation into Ms Braverman – as demanded by opposition parties Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

“I don’t know the full details of what has happened nor have I spoken to the Home Secretary,” Mr Sunak said.

“I think you can see first-hand what I have been doing over the last day or so but I understand that she’s expressed regret for speeding, accepted the penalty and paid the fine.”

Pressed on whether he would ask his ethics advisor Sir Laurie Magnus to investigate the Home Secretary, Mr Sunak appeared riled, responding: “Did you have any questions about the summit?”

Home secretary Suella Braverman put civil servants in an “impossible situation,” a former senior civil servant has said.

Philip Ryecroft, formerly the permanent secretary at the now-defunct Department for Exiting the European Union, told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour programme: “This on the face of it I think is a breach of the ministerial code.

“Obviously, there’s still investigations to be done and so on but the code is very clear. Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises or appears to arise between their public duties and their private interests.

“Even asking a question of a civil servant as to how she might go on one of these courses puts them in an impossible position.”

The Labour Party has urged Rishi Sunak to “show some backbone” and commission an investigation “without delay” into the claims facing his home secretary.

Mr Sunak refused to back Mrs Braverman when asked for his opinion at a press briefing on Sunday but Downing Street later said he retained confidence in her.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, in a letter to Mr Sunak, said his independent adviser should probe whether Mrs Braverman asked civil servants to help her enlist in a private driving course as she reportedly looked to avoid incurring points on her driving licence.

The senior Opposition MP said that, if the Cabinet minister had done so, it may amount to a breach of the ministerial code.

She said the code laid out that ministers must uphold the political impartiality of the Civil Service and not ask officials to act in any way which would conflict with the Civil Service Code.

The code by which civil servants must abide states that public servants must not “misuse” their position to “further private interests or those of others”.

Ms Rayner said: “Members of the Cabinet are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, and any attempt to direct civil servants to obtain special treatment in this matter would clearly amount to an unacceptable abuse of power and privilege by the Home Secretary.”