Suella Braverman has been accused of daring No 10 to sack her with provocative comments designed to cement her position as the rightwing frontrunner to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.
Former ministers and Tory insiders claim that the home secretary is deliberately making unauthorised statements on homelessness, demonstrations and multiculturalism to woo the party’s hard-right base.
The prime minister has refused to endorse Braverman’s claims that rough sleeping is sometimes a “lifestyle choice” and the flagship criminal justice bill has been delayed amid resistance from some cabinet ministers over her measures to stop tents being given to homeless people. Ministers have also refused to repeat Braverman’s description of pro-Palestinian demonstrations as “hate marches”.
Colleagues suspect Braverman has calculated that she has little to lose by making hard-hitting statements that appeal to the party membership.
I’ve often been suspicious of YouGov though because they have this tendency to ask questions in a way that gets them the results they want.
If they want a result that shows that people like Braverman, then they make sure not to ask questions anywhere where they might accidentally get some young people answering. Probably a good idea to go to a retirement home or exclusively ask people coming out of a Waitrose. They very much are not going to the universities, and they are not going to the abandoned Northern cities. As long as they stay south of Bedford they should be ok.
They are right leaning, and not independent, so I don’t trust their findings, for the most part. I don’t believe they actively lie (except by omission) but I do think they’re dishonest in the way they collect their information.
So she’s got 15% of the vote when it’s been massively biased in her favour. It’s not exactly a great endorsement.