Suella Braverman's anti-immigrant stance is trashing PM's pleas for 'compassionate Conservatism', critics say

Suella Braverman defiantly faced down her critics in the Commons on Monday as she was grilled over her failure to tackle an overcrowding crisis at a camp of asylum seekers in England as she compared asylum seekers arriving in Britain to an “invasion”.

It came just a day after a white suicide bomber threw petrol bombs at an immigration centre in Dover before taking his own life. Police have said they are not treating the incident as terrorism-related.

Liz Truss sacked her from the position last month as one of her final acts as prime minister, but Braverman was reappointed by Rishi Sunak just under a week later.

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Braverman denied reports she had ignored legal advice to secure more accommodation for asylum seekers despite warnings that a temporary holding centre at Manston in Kent is dangerously overcrowded.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick said reports of outbreaks of diphtheria, MRSA and scabies at the camp were “not correct”.

He told BBC Breakfast: “There have been four cases of diphtheria in a population of around 4000. But those are all individuals who came into the site with that condition.

“They didn’t pick it up there, as far as we’re aware. They’ve been isolated and they’re being treated appropriately.

“But that’s not to say that I’m content with the condition of the site. I’m not.”

The SNP have said her incendiary comments about asylum seekers make a “mockery” of Sunak’s ostensible commitment to “compassionate Conservatism”.

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Politico reports one former minister had compared her to the notorious anti-immigration MP Enoch Powell, infamous for his Rivers of Blood speech in which he warned and branded her “Enoch Braverman”.

The site reports the unnamed Tory questioned whether “Enoch Braverman is the compassionate conservatism that will win us elections”.

No 10 has now said “large numbers” of people have been taken from Manston to other accommodation to “relieve pressure” on the overcrowded facility.

Stuart McDonald, the SNP home affairs spokesperson, said: “There's nothing compassionate about comparing vulnerable asylum seekers to an 'invasion' or dreaming of shipping them off to Rwanda.

"The Home Secretary is a liability - and she should never have been reappointed after she was sacked for breaching the ministerial code. Even her own Tory colleagues now openly admit she's completely unfit for office.

"Rishi Sunak's dodgy backroom deal with Ms Braverman, and his failure to sack her now, will define his premiership. Either he's too weak to act, or he shares her appalling views and lacks compassion and integrity.

"For Scotland, independence is the only escape from the constant crisis of Westminster control and the Tory hostile environment, which has repeatedly brought shame on the UK."

The Scottish Greens have also compared the Home Secretary to the infamous late Tory MP, branding her comments "some of the most disgraceful and appalling rhetoric used by any senior politician in the UK for decades". 

Ross Greer, the party's external affairs spokesperson, said: "Words like that are totally irresponsible, particularly in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack against a centre for asylum seekers in Dover. It will only further fan the flames of prejudice. It was so toxic that even the immigration minister has distanced himself from Braverman. 

“But this isn’t just about her cruel words. The policies that she and her predecessors have overseen have been brutal and inhumane.

"They have shown a total disregard for the rights of often very vulnerable people, especially pregnant women and children.

“Whether it is their cruel and terrifying dawn raids or the racist Rwanda deportation flights that the Home Secretary has said she dreams about, it is clearer than ever that the Home Office is broken beyond repair."