UK interior minister quits: Who is Suella Braverman, whose India remarks sparked row

Braverman had recently thrown a spanner in the works of the India-UK trade deal with her comments about Indian migrants overstaying their visas. Later, she in apparent course correction, she said “the story of India and the story of the UK are so intimately linked that they are to a great extent the same story.”

Who is Suella Braverman

Braverman, 42, is a Conservative leader and lawyer who was elected to the UK Parliament from Fairham in 2015 and served as attorney general for England and Wales from 2020 to 2022. She campaigned to leave the EU and served as a junior minister in the Brexit department under former PM Theresa May, but resigned in protest at her proposed Brexit deal, saying it did not go far enough in breaking ties with the bloc.

Braverman was among the leaders in the race to replace Boris Johnson as UK Prime Minister earlier this year but lost in the second round. She was appointed interior minister under Truss in September, along with Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who was sacked on October 14.

Braverman’s parents have Indian origins and migrated to the UK in the 1960s, her mother from Mauritius and father from Kenya. While her mother is of Hindu Tamil descent, her father has Goan ancestry.

As a politician, Braverman has defended British colonialism and taken a hard line on immigrants, supporting their deportation to Rwanda. In her resignation letter, one of her criticisms of the Truss government was: “Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government’s commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.”

After Leicester saw violence following an India-Pakistan cricket match, she blamed it on uncontrolled migration and the “failure of newcomers to integrate”.

What did Braverman say about India

In an interview to The Spectator magazine in early October, Braverman said she feared a trade deal with India would increase migration to the UK when Indians already represented the largest group of visa overstayers.

“I have concerns about having an open borders migration policy with India because I don’t think that’s what people voted for with Brexit,” Braverman said. Asked about visa flexibility for students and entrepreneurs, she said, “I do have some reservations. Look at migration in this country – the largest group of people who overstay are Indian migrants.”

“We even reached an agreement with the Indian government last year to encourage and facilitate better cooperation in this regard. It has not necessarily worked very well,” she added.

India and the UK are close to sealing a free trade agreement (FTA), which aims to increase bilateral trade, facilitate smooth movement of people between the two countries, and cut tariff on the import of Scotch whiskey into India. While the deal was to be signed by Diwali, the deadline has now been pushed, and Barverman’s comments are seen as having played a role in that.

On Tuesday, in damage control mode, Braverman said UK had been “profoundly enriched by immigration from India”.

“Candidly, leaving the European Union (EU) means the United Kingdom is better placed to think outside of the Eurocentric mindset, look to every horizon and cherish and nurture relationships with old friends like India. The points-based immigration system means that we no longer favour people from Europe over people from elsewhere. Meanwhile, around a quarter of all foreign students in the UK are from India,” she said at a Diwali event.

India, on its part, had said it has processes every complaint received on visa overstaying.

Her comments about the British Empire

In an interview to The Telegraph in June, Braverman had said she was “proud of the British Empire”, and that she was “informed by the experience of my parents.”

She said her parents “were born under the British Empire in the 1940s, and they have nothing but good things to tell me about the mother country”.

The leader added that this was “not to deny the awful things as well that went on because of the time period and cultural norms at that time”.