Background

Suella Braverman read law at Cambridge University, though also spent two years as an Erasmus Programme student and then as an Entente Cordiale Scholar in France, where she completed a master’s degree in European and French law at Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She was called to the bar in 2005, before beginning practice in London. By 2010, she had been appointed to the Regional Panel of Treasury Counsel, where she represented the Government in the High Court.

Political Career

Elected as the MP for Fareham in 2015, Braverman has experienced a relatively rapid rise up the ministerial ranks. A strong Eurosceptic, she was appointed Minister for Exiting the European Union in 2018 – her first such role. She returned to the backbenches later that year after resigning in protest against the Government’s Brexit policy. Two years later, in a sharp promotion, she was appointed Attorney General by Boris Johnson in the February 2020 Cabinet reshuffle. After Johnson resigned in July 2022, Braverman was a candidate to succeed him in the Conservative Party leadership election but was eliminated from the ballot after the second round of voting. She subsequently supported Liz Truss’ bid to become Conservative leader and was appointed as Home Secretary when Truss became Prime Minister.

Views on portfolio

"Firmly on the right of the Conservative Party, Braverman is expected to pursue hardline policies, particularly on immigration. She will want to find ways of sidelining the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which she sees as frustrating the Government's policy on deporting asylum seekers. This may cause a huge legal row both domestically and internationally, depending what course of action she takes.

More broadly, not one for shirking controversy, she has won many supporters among hardline backbenchers via her aggressive approach to policy. How this translates to her stance on crime and policing will also be fascinating to see."