'Leaky Sue': Six politician's nicknames explained

Suella Braverman is in the news today after reports emerged she is nicknamed "leaky Sue" in Whitehall for her behaviour in the Home Office.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey made the claim on The News Agents podcast yesterday, after the home secretary was reappointed to her role despite resigning six days prior for sending "sensitive" documents to the wrong person, from the wrong email.

If that wasn't bad enough, today it was reported by The Daily Mail that Braverman was probed by national security officials earlier this year as part of a leak inquiry when she was attorney general.

"Leaky Sue" is quite the nickname but it is not uncommon for politicians to attract ridicule from people.

Here are some other names people have given politicians:

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1. Leaky Sue

As said, Braverman was described in the unflattering manner yesterday during a podcast recording. "There's a slight sort of shock that when a Home Secretary resigns for effectively breaching national security, not just the ministerial code, it was far more serious than that, that somehow the new Prime Minister thinks he's okay to bring it back straightaway," Davey told podcast.

"I'm genuinely gobsmacked by that decision of the new Prime Minister. And the answers were not forthcoming from the government today."

He added: "Her nickname we're told is 'Leaky Sue' and for a Home Secretary to even have that nickname after a relatively short time in office, I think says it all."

Thanks to her controversial immigration policies, she is also sometimes known as 'Cruella'.

2. 30p Lee

It is Tory MP Lee Anderson who is nicknamed 30p Lee.

He earnt this moniker when he made strange comments in parliament about food banks in May this year.

He said that “generation after generation” of people “cannot budget” or make meals properly.

Anderson also said in the Commons that meals could be cooked from scratch "for about 30 pence a day" as he invited "everybody" on the opposition benches to visit a food bank in Ashfield.

He said: "I've got a big bee in my bonnet about food poverty. I'm a big believer that we do need food banks, but not to the degree we've got them.

"Every do gooder is starting these little projects to make themselves feel good."

He said he had worked with a local chef in his Ashfield constituency to make 172 meals after spending £50 in a supermarket.

"'30p Lee' they named me," he said. "That stuck but in a good sort of way, it got people talking about food poverty.

3. Red Ed

The Daily Mail labelled Ed Miliband 'Red Ed' when he was running for PM, as a way of making his politics seem veering towards communist.

The moniker stuck, despite his social democratic policies being nothing of the sort.

4. Maybot

Sketch writer John Crace coined Theresa May the "Maybot" after she gave a car-crash interview showing very little emotion. After that, it was used everytime the then prime minister behaved as if she was a robot not a human being, from awkward speeches to strange media appearances.

Now that Rishi Sunak is PM, he is displaying some of the same robotic traits:

5. Keith

Some people on the left of Labour call Labour leader Keir Starmer 'Keith'. It is not entirely clear how this started, but whenever people label him Keith it is always in a derogatory manner and some theories argue it is because he is boring.

Poor Starmer.

6. Mad Nads

It isn't exactly polite, but everytime former culture secretary Nadine Dorries opens her mouth, people on Twitter call her Mad Nads.

The MP has had quite a few odd moments in her time, from unconditionally defending Boris Johnson to rapping on TikTok.

Its moments like these that make people question her.

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