Suella Braverman has warned that Islamists, extremists and anti-Semites are now in charge of Britain, after a week that saw centuries-old Commons rules changed to avoid MPs being threatened over Gaza.
Ms Braverman is the latest Tory voice to spell out the threat to institutions, traditions and security posed by extremist Islamists.
She warns they have “bullied the Labour Party, bullied out institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission”.
The former Home Secretary also accuses political leaders of “burying their heads in the sand”, preferring the illusion of a “successful multicultural society” and avoiding being labelled “racist”.
In one of her most attention-grabbing pieces to date, Ms Braverman demands to know what happened to “our great country”, and what became of the “respectful, welcoming” Britain where faiths and races co-existed peacefully.
She argues: “I remember that country, but it’s not the Britain I see now”.
Sir Keir Starmer is mercilessly slammed as being responsible “for one of the most shameful days of our democracy”.
Ms Braverman accuses the Labour leader of “effectively taking the Speaker hostage” and bringing Parliament into disrepute.
“This is the behaviour of tyrants. Just imagine what Starmer would do as Prime Minister,” Ms Braverman ominously warns.
In a rallying cri de coeur, the top Tory MP emphatically says Britain “cannot accept defeat” and says we “need to find our courage”.
Among the to-do list set out by the former Cabinet Minister, Ms Braverman says protests must be policed better; campuses, mosques and councils need cleaning up; we need better integration; we must avoid sleepwalking into a “ghettoised society” where freedom of expression is diluted.
She also homes in on the anti-radicalisation Prevent Programme, which the former Home Secretary warned needs urgently reforming.
Left wingers, she warns, cannot be allowed to attack Prevent on the grounds it is “Islamophobic” or “racist”, as it has been set up to tackle Islamism, which she describes as “the most dangerous terrorist ideology facing our country”.
According to Ms Braverman, 75 percent of MI5’s caseload consisted of Islamic terrorism, but just 11 percent of Prevent referrals are for Islamic terrorism due to political pressure.
She appears to take a swipe at her successor as Home Secretary, James Cleverly, warning that progress on Prevent has “stalled” and the Government is failing to properly “keep the spotlight on Hamas networks in the UK”.
Ms Braverman now claims she was sacked because she spoke out “against the appeasement of Islamists”, but says she would happily do so again as her civil duty.
In the closing peroration of her Telegraph op-ed, she demands the fightback against this crisis starts now with urgency, “if we are to preserve the liberties we cherish and the privileges this country affords us all. If we are to have any chance of saving our country from the mob”.
This morning James Cleverly rejected Ms Braverman’s claim, saying we still live in one of the greatest countries in the world.
He told Times Radio: “We have a high functioning democracy. We live by the rule of law. And I don’t think it is right or appropriate to imply anything other than that”.
“But what we value needs to be defended. I and the Prime Minister and the rest of the Government are absolutely committed to defending those things that we value: Openness , liberalism, freedom of speech, the democratic process and the rule of law. And that will remain an absolute commitment.”
