SUELLA CLINGS ON
Home Sec dodges questions » Calls for speeding fine probe
SUELLA Braverman last night was told to “come clean” over whether she instructed an aide to mislead the Mirror about a speeding ticket.
The Home Secretary desperately clung to her job, insisting she had done “nothing untoward”.
Mrs Braverman was fined and given points on her licence after being caught driving too fast last summer.
But her aide insisted this was not true when the Mirror contacted the minister about the offence seven weeks ago.
The Tory special adviser denied four times that she had been done for speeding and claimed it was “nonsense”.
Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain yesterday demanded Cabinet Secretary Simon Case launch an investigation.
The MP called on Mrs Braverman to “come clean to the public” on whether she had told her aide to deny that she had been caught speeding.
The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers states they “must set out the facts and relevant issues truthfully, and correct any errors as soon as possible”.
In a letter to Mr Case, Ms Chamberlain wrote: “It would be wholly inappropriate for the special adviser to be misleading media outlets about the personal affairs of the Home Secretary. There are clear questions to be answered. “Did the Home Secretary ask her special adviser to act in conflict with the Code of Conduct? If so, did the Special Adviser repeatedly and knowingly mislead journalists?” And Mrs Braverman yesterday dodged questions on whether she asked civil servants to help her arrange a private speed awareness course after she received the ticket.
Asked if this was the case, she told reporters: “Last summer, I was speeding. I regret that. I paid the fine and I took the points but we’re focused now on delivering for the British people.”
Pressed on whether she asked civil servants to arrange a private course, she said: “I’m focused on doing my job as Home Secretary. In my view, I’m confident nothing untoward has happened.”
The Prime Minister last night was still deciding whether she should face a sleaze probe. Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Rishi Sunak is once again dithering and delaying. The PM must order an ethics investigation.”
RISHI Sunak insists he wants more information before deciding whether to ask No10’s ethics adviser to investigate Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
She is under fire over the involvement of civil servants in her ruse to avoid other drivers knowing that she would be taking a speed awareness course.
Playing for time or playing it by the book, the Prime Minister looks weak and out of touch when the top Conservative’s behaviour deserves an immediate official investigation to get to the truth and decide if the ministerial code was broken.
Braverman herself is refusing to answer legitimate questions, endlessly repeating a clearly rehearsed limited line.
Failing at her day job and sacked last year for security breaches before Sunak recklessly parachuted her back into a vital office of state in return for her support to be PM, Braverman is a liability that Britain cannot afford.