Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman struck a blow against Jeremy Hunt, after claiming she had to physically “chase” the Chancellor down a corridor to discuss immigration.
During an interview with comedians-turned-online political pundits Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, Ms Braverman said that the Government had failed to slash net migration due to “political resistance”, chiefly from the Treasury.
“For my part, I have been very eager to deliver on that policy – to lower net migration – and technically it’s very easy to do”, she said.
The MP for Fareham added: “You just have to take an administrative and executive decision to do it.”
Ms Braverman, who has since been replaced by James Cleverly in the Home Office, said she “had the hope” she would be able to reduce net migration – which was 672,000 in the year to June 2023 – however, she added that she was “met with a lot of resistance around the cabinet table”.
“The prime minister didn’t want to engage on this subject and didn’t want to deliver on it.”
When asked why that was the case, she said that cabinet members themselves would have to answer that themselves.
Incredibly, the Brexit-championing MP claimed that she had to physically chase Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to force him to listen to her arguments for reducing net migration – a key Tory pledge going back to David Cameron’s government, where he committed to reducing the figure to the “tens of thousands”.
“It was reported at the time that I was having to chase the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt down the corridor in my efforts to persuade him and sit him down to have the discussion – that was true, that did happen.”
She added that it “illustrates that ministers didn’t want to talk about” migration and that the “orthodoxy” in the Treasury was that more “economic units” coming in – migrants arriving – was good for the economy.
Ms Braverman told Mr Kisin and Mr Foster that she “disputed” that assessment.
