UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman quits days after Kwasi Kwarteng’s sacking

Suella Braverman

Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman. She has resigned from her post.

Photo credit: Isabel Infantes | AFP

The United Kingdom Home Secretary Suella Braverman has quit saying she breached government rules.

The 42-year-old’s exit is the second in Prime Minister Liz Truss’ cabinet in under a week. It follows Kwasi Kwarteng’s departure who was removed as the finance minister on October 14.

In a resignation letter addressed to PM Truss, and shared on her social media pages, Ms Braverman cited "technical infringement of rules" in an email she sent to "trusted parliamentary colleague".

Ms Braverman, a leading right-winger, was let go by PM Truss over the official document shared from her personal email to an MP, a serious breach of ministerial rules.

The email was a draft of a statement on migration and was deemed highly sensitive owing to its relevance to immigration rules and the potential implications it could have on market growth.

Earlier this month, Ms Braverman said that a trade deal with India would increase migration to the UK as Indians make the "largest group of people who overstay" their visas in the country.

Her remarks came at a time when the two countries were negotiating a free trade agreement.

Ms Braverman is an Indian-origin British minister.

Kwarteng sacked

On Friday, PM Truss dismissed her finance minister, the chancellor of the exchequer, in person after he rushed back early from international meetings in Washington, multiple media reports said, and she was due later to hold her first Downing Street news conference.

A Treasury spokesman confirmed Kwarteng had cut short the trip "to continue work on his medium-term fiscal plan" due on October 31, after Truss held hurried meetings with her own financial advisors on Thursday in his absence.

As UK broadcasters showed live footage of Kwarteng's British Airways plane landing at Heathrow airport, government bond yields eased in a sign that markets did expect a volte-face.