Suella's letter unpicked: Braverman's six hand grenades launched at Sunak

1. 'No personal mandate to be Prime Minister' 

Braverman uses her letter to remind Sunak - and his voters - that he is not an elected Prime Minister. He lost the first leadership election to Liz Truss and after she was ousted won by default when Penny Mordaunt, the only other candidate, dropped out of the race.

Noting this, Braverman says: "Despite you having been rejected by a majority of Party members during the summer leadership contest and thus having no personal mandate to be Prime Minister, I agreed to support you because of the firm assurances you gave me on key policy priorities."

Braverman heavily suggests Sunak only got the backing which caused Mordaunt to drop out because of her support. "It is generally agreed that my support was a pivotal factor in winning the leadership contest and thus enabling you to become Prime Minister", she later says.

2. 'You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies'

The crux of Braverman's letter is that the PM has failed to deliver on four promises he is said to have made to her - "among other things" - during the second leadership election last year.

The four promises outlined by the former Home Secretary were:

1. Reduce overall legal migration through reforming the international students route and increasing salary thresholds on work visas;
2. Include specific ‘notwithstanding clauses’ into new legislation to stop the boats
3. Deliver the Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law Bills "in their then existing form and timetable"
4. Issue "unequivocal statutory guidance" to schools that protects biological sex, safeguards single-sex spaces, and "empowers parents to know what is being taught to their children"

But Braverman accuses the Prime Minister of having "manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies".

She claims she has spent her year in office sending "numerous letters" to the PM about the four issues, "made requests to discuss them" and "put forward proposals on how we might deliver these goals". Braverman claims to have "worked up the legal advice, policy detail and action to take on these issues" but accuses Sunak of meeting her suggestions with "equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest".

Speculating about the reason for this, Braverman says: "Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises."

3. 'They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory'

Tapping into wider concern in the party that Sunak is not delivering on the 2019 Conservative manifesto, Braverman warns: "These are not just pet interests of mine. They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit Referendum."

She adds: "Our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged."

This comes just one day after a group of 2019 Tory MPs, the New Conservatives, published a stinging letter yesterday, expressing concern that the party has strayed from the mission it was elected for. In a joint letter, Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger accused the Prime Minister of "walking away from 2019 voters".

4. 'A betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do “whatever it takes” to stop the boats'

Braverman accuses Sunak of failing to stop the boats, claiming he "rejected" available options she presented to him, such as "blocking off" the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

She says: "I was clear from day one that if you did not wish to leave the ECHR, the way to securely and swiftly deliver our Rwanda partnership would be to block off the ECHR, the HRA and any other obligations which inhibit our ability to remove those with no right to be in the UK. Our deal expressly referenced ‘notwithstanding clauses’ to that effect.

"Your rejection of this path was not merely a betrayal of our agreement, but a betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do “whatever it takes” to stop the boats."

5. 'You opted instead for wishful thinking as a comfort blanket to avoid having to make hard choices'

Braverman also paves the way for Sunak to take the blame should the Rwanda plan be rejected in the courts today, accusing him of failing to "prepare any sort of credible 'Plan B'."

She says: "At every stage of litigation I cautioned you and your team against assuming we would win. I repeatedly urged you to take legislative measures that would better secure us against the possibility of defeat. You ignored these arguments. You opted instead for wishful thinking as a comfort blanket to avoid having to make hard choices. This irresponsibility has wasted time and left the country in an impossible position.

"If we lose in the Supreme Court, an outcome that I have consistently argued we must be prepared for, you will have wasted a year and an Act of Parliament, only to arrive back at square one. Worse than this, your magical thinking — believing that you can will your way through this without upsetting polite opinion — has meant you have failed to prepare any sort of credible ‘Plan B’.

"I wrote to you on multiple occasions setting out what a credible Plan B would entail, and making clear that unless you pursue these proposals, in the event of defeat, there is no hope of flights this side of an election. I received no reply from you."

6. 'You sought to put off tough decisions in order to minimise political risk to yourself'

In a damning criticism of his character and leadership, Braverman accuses Sunak of failing to "rise to the challenge posed by the increasingly vicious antisemitism and extremism displayed on our streets since Hamas’s terrorist atrocities of 7th October".

She accuses him of a response to the crisis which is "uncertain, weak, and lacking in the qualities of leadership that this country needs".

The former Home Secretary adds: "Rather than fully acknowledge the severity of this threat, your team disagreed with me for weeks that the law needed changing.

"As on so many other issues, you sought to put off tough decisions in order to minimise political risk to yourself. In doing so, you have increased the very real risk these marches present to everyone else."