Suella Braverman news – latest: Home Secretary in fresh code breach claims after speeding row

Suella Braverman is facing fresh allegations of ministerial code breaches over her failure to formally disclose years of previous work with the Rwandan government.

The home secretary co-founded a charity called the Africa Justice Foundation with Cherie Blair, which trained Rwandan government lawyers between 2010 and 2015.

Several people the charity worked with are now key members of President Paul Kagame’s government and are involved in the UK’s £140m deal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

One former minister told The Independent that the home secretary “never mentioned” her work with the charity and should have been “upfront and transparent”, while two former standards chiefs said Ms Braverman should have formally disclosed her former role.

Ms Braverman resigned from her post as director of the Africa Justice Foundation weeks before being elected to parliament, and did not declare her previous role to Home Office permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft last year.

Lizzie Dearden reports:

More than 10 per cent of all Tory MPs have said they are planning to stand down at the next general election – with former deputy PM Dominic Raab the latest to announce his departure.

The next election is expected sometime next year, though no official date has yet been set. Despite this, dozens of MPs from across the parties have said they won’t be standing again.

Here are some of the bigger names who have said they won’t be returning to the Commons after voters go to the polls.

Jon Stone and Eleanor Noyce report:

Curbs on overseas students bringing family to the UK may be “damaging” to the pipeline of “international talent” into the country, a union has warned.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), called the tightening of immigration rules by the Home Office “a vindictive move”.

She said: “Those who choose to study in the UK, no matter where they are from in the world, bring huge value to our society and deserve the right to live alongside their loved ones whilst they study. Instead, they are being treated with contempt.

“It is clear that deep concern is already being felt across the sector as to just how damaging the package of measures announced by the home secretary could be to the pipeline of international talent coming to the UK.

“This is another deeply shameful moment for a Government hell-bent on attacking migrants and undermining our universities.”

Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said changes to rules on dependants announced by the Government are likely to have a “disproportionate impact on women and students from certain countries”.

He added that Government should limit and monitor the impact of restrictions to student visa routes on universities already under “serious financial pressures.”

He said: “We therefore urge the Government to work with the sector to limit and monitor the impact on particular groups of students – and on universities, which are already under serious financial pressures. The review process that has been announced must consider these issues.

“Ultimately, our collective aim must be to ensure that international students who choose the UK can be confident that they are welcome here, that their contribution is valued, and that the terms on which they have made decisions remain stable.

“Anything that threatens to affect the UK’s global success as a top destination for international talent needs to be considered very carefully.”

However, Mr Arrowsmith said that the “vast majority” of international students will not be affected by the changes to rules on dependents announced by the home secretary.

“I think it’s really hard to say at this stage what the scale of the impact might be,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.

“We do know that the vast majority of international students are not accompanied by dependents.

“So the vast majority of students will be unaffected by this change.

“There will of course be some impact, otherwise the Government would not be introducing the change.”

New immigration rules announced by the home secretary today are likely to have a “negative impact” on universities’ plans to diversify their student intakes, the leader of the Russell Group said.

A major tightening of immigration rules will prevent overseas students bringing tens of thousands of dependants to the UK.

Home secretary Suella Braverman told MPs: “This package strikes the right balance between acting decisively on tackling net migration and protecting the economic benefits that students can bring to the UK.

“Now is the time for us to make these changes to ensure an impact on net migration as soon as possible. We expect this package to have a tangible impact on net migration.”

Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, which represents some of the most selective institutions in the UK, said overseas students bring “vital income to support education for UK students and world-leading research”.

He said: “Global competition for international students is fierce and some of the announcements made today are likely to have a negative impact on universities’ plans to diversify their international student intakes.

“However, we welcome the Government’s recommitment to the graduate route and that students coming to study on postgraduate research programmes will still be able to bring dependants.”

Meanwhile, Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), said banning overseas students from bringing their families to the UK is not “wise” as these students bring money to the country.

Mr Hillman said he hoped the home secretary will now lobby the chancellor “to help universities recoup their losses” following the announcement.

He said: “This is not a wise move because every part of the UK benefits from the presence of international students and, if they are discouraged from coming to the UK, they won’t stay at home but instead go to our competitors.”

Mr Hillman added: “We do all have to recognise that the big recent surge in dependants has caused some challenges, but this is not a sensible way to address them. As a country, we risk cutting off our nose to spite our face.

“Given that international student fees subsidise the teaching of home students as well as UK research, I hope the Home Secretary will now be lobbying the Chancellor to help universities recoup their losses.”

Suella Braverman has announced a crackdown on overseas students bringing family members to the UK as part of a push to reduce net migration.

The home secretary said all foreign students – apart from those on postgraduate research programmes – will be banned from bringing dependents from January 2024.

Ms Braverman said there had been an “unexpected” spike in the number of relatives coming with students – saying the trend could “not be at the expense” of the Tory promise to cut immigration.

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The former head of the civil service said one problem with the ministerial code is that any potential breach is treated as a “gotcha moment”.

Sir Gus O’Donnell, who was cabinet secretary between 2005 and 2011, declined to say whether Home Secretary Suella Braverman broke the code over her handling of a speeding offence.

But he rejected the assumption that ministers should automatically resign if a breach is identified.

Speaking at an Institute for Government (IfG) event on Tuesday, Sir Gus said: “One of the things that was wrong about the ministerial code (is) that people thought, journalists in particular, about this, ‘Aha, gotcha. You broke the ministerial code therefore you must resign’, which is not true.

“It shouldn’t be true. It should be, ‘You broke the ministerial code, it is actually a relatively minor offence, I am going to give you a yellow card and we’ll move on’.”

He added: “I would personally like the independent investigation to have, overall, more power to take up, to start investigations.

“Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this and then the Prime Minister will make a decision as to what should be done.”

Also appearing at the IfG event, former cabinet minister George Eustice said he did not know the circumstances of Mrs Braverman’s case but echoed Sir Gus’s view on the way events are being perceived.

He said: “There is a tendency sometimes where we have these rules for them to be turned into a kind of gotcha kind of debate.

“The thing that always surprised me about our system is rarely do people get done for any serious wrongdoing. It is usually some minor technical crossing of the line that then gets blown out of proportion.

“It is a big weakness in our system that we have these distractions.”

In the last question of the urgent questions session, DUP MP Jim Shannon said we should all learn from the Biblical quote, “that he who is without sin should cast the first stone.”

Conservative Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) spoke of a “clear attempt to play the woman not the ball,” during an Urgent Questions session about the home secretary’s handling of a speeding fine.

She asked: “Does (he) agree with me that this leak is a clear attempt to play the woman not the ball, an attempt that undermines our democracy and distracts from the important job of delivering on ordinary people’s priorities.”

Cabinet office minister Jeremy Quin replied: “The Home secretary has an incredibly important job to do, I totally agree with (her) and I know she’s deeply committed whatever the noise, to get on and deliver that job for the British people.”

Conservative Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) said: “I have no first hand knowledge of this particular case, but does (he) agree with me, that there is and should always be a difference between asking a civil servant to do something which may or may not be wrong and asking a civil servant for advice on whether something is or is not likely to be wrong if you do it.”

Mr Quin replied: “Of course I would agree that there is a difference there, but I wouldn’t wish to speculate about this particular circumstance as (he) will understand.”