Britain beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carried out a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle on Monday, firing his divisive home secretary and bringing back former premier David Cameron to the heart of government after a seven-year absence from politics.
In the early hours of Monday morning, the uncompromising Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, was dismissed following inflammatory remarks about the handling of pro-Palestinian protests in central London over the weekend. Braverman’s tenure had been marred by scandals and divisive comments, contributing to fractures within Sunak’s government.
In a surprising move with few parallels in recent British political history, Sunak announced the return of Cameron to frontline politics, appointing him as the new foreign secretary. Cameron, who served as prime minister from 2010 to 2016, resigned in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum, a decision he had called for.
Cameron’s premiership had set the course for 13 years of Conservative rule, but the internal upheaval triggered by the Brexit referendum and its aftermath plunged his party into years of instability from which it is still grappling to emerge. a dramatic Cabinet reshuffle
Downing Street confirmed that James Cleverly, previously the foreign secretary, would assume the role vacated by Braverman, making room for Cameron’s unexpected comeback to the Cabinet.
Braverman had served as Sunak’s interior minister throughout his tenure in Downing Street, but her confrontational rhetoric towards migrants, protesters, the police and even the homeless had caused rifts in the government and sparked speculation that she was plotting a future leadership bid.
She most recently courted criticism by accusing London’s police force of applying “double standards” in the way they manage protests, in an op-ed in the Times of London newspaper condemning a pro-Palestinian march that Downing Street said had not been cleared by Sunak.
On Saturday, far-right counter-protesters clashed with police in central London after Braverman called the pro-Palestinian demonstration a “hate march,” stoking tensions around a rally taking place on Remembrance Sunday.