Rishi Sunak sacks Home Secretary Braverman, ex-PM Cameron back as new Foreign Secretary
London, Nov 13: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak carried out a dramatic reshuffle to his Cabinet on Monday, firing his hardline Indian-origin Home Secretary Suella Braverman and bringing former premier David Cameron back to frontline politics as his Foreign Secretary.
"It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as Home Secretary. I will have more to say in due course," Braverman, 43, said in a brief statement, as it was announced that James Cleverly, 54, will be replacing her in the Cabinet, making way for Cameron, 54, as the new Foreign Secretary.
Cameron, who is no longer an MP in the House of Commons, will have to be appointed to the House of Lords to meet the parliamentary protocol.
"While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience - as Conservative Leader for eleven years and Prime Minister for six - will assist me in helping the prime minister," the former prime minister said in his first comments after being appointed as the foreign secretary.
Cameron served as the UK Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016.
"The King has been pleased to approve the following government appointments: Rt Hon James Cleverly MP as Secretary of State for the Home Department; Rt Hon David Cameron as Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs," a Downing Street statement said.
The reshuffle comes at a time when outgoing foreign secretary Cleverly was scheduled for bilateral talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is in the UK for a five-day official visit during which he held tea-time talks with Sunak at 10 Downing Street on Sunday.
It now remains to be seen how his further meetings will unfold and if he will be meeting Cameron as his new UK counterpart in place of Cleverly.
"Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time," Cameron posted in a statement on X.
"I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the General Election is held," he said.
Cameron resigned as prime minister in June 2016 soon after he lost in the Brexit referendum, having campaigned for the UK to remain within the European Union (EU). At the time, he was directly at odds with Sunak - then a junior minister - who had campaigned for Britain to leave the EU.
"While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience - as Conservative Leader for eleven years and Prime Minister for six - will assist me in helping the Prime Minister to meet these vital challenges," added Cameron.
The last foreign secretary to serve in the Lords was Peter Carrington, who was part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government in the 1980s, according to the Associated Press.
Braverman's exit was somewhat expected after days of speculation over her job since it emerged her controversial newspaper article attacking the Metropolitan Police was published without clearance from 10 Downing Street.
The Goan-origin Cabinet minister has repeatedly courted controversy in her senior UK Cabinet role, most recently by accusing the Met Police of "playing favourites" when tackling aggressive Israel-Gaza protests in an article in The Times'.
Sunak had been under pressure from sections of his Conservative Party as well as faced attacks from the Opposition for allowing her to continue in her job after her breach of the ministerial code by defying her boss' orders.
"Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter-protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage," Braverman said in a statement on Sunday evening, following far-right violence during the protests over the weekend.
"The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Antisemitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling," she said, in her final statement as home secretary.
However, she is unlikely to go to the Tory backbenches of the House of Commons quietly and is expected to create trouble for the Sunak-led government with the backing of her supporters on the right of the Conservative Party.
Meanwhile, four junior ministers have announced they are standing down from the government.
Long-serving Schools Minister Nick Gibb announced he was resigning and would step down as an MP at the next election, while Neil O'Brien said he had left his role as health minister.
Will Quince has also resigned from the Department of Health and Social Care, while Jesse Norman has left his role as a transport minister.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
