Suella Braverman accused of 'cruelty' for dreaming of new Rwanda deportation flight before Christmas

If you were wondering just how bad Suella Braverman - Priti Patel’s successor as home secretary – is on the subject of deporting refugees, then an interview at Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham on Tuesday can give you a pretty good idea.

In a recording of Chopper’s Politics with The Telegraph’s associate editor Christopher Hope, the former Tory leadership candidate was talking about the government’s controversial policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The first scheduled flight in June was cancelled at the eleventh hour following an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights – the court which oversees the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that Ms Braverman desperately wants us to leave.

She told Mr Hope: “I would love to be having a front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda. That’s my dream – it’s an obsession.”

Asked when she would want that to happen, the home secretary expressed her desire for it to take place before the festive period.

Naturally, Twitter has been horrified by the comments, with many pointing out that such an ambition from Ms Braverman isn’t exactly in keeping with the spirit of Christmas:

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Elsewhere, Ms Braverman expressed that it would be “my delight if I’m annoying the left” as she was asked a question about her parents being from Mauritius and Kenya.

“They don’t, by the way, have any qualms about extolling the virtues of the British Empire. It was the British Empire that brought infrastructure, the legal system, the civil service, the military to countries like Mauritius and Kenya.

“History is complex and nuanced, and I’m not going to apologise for Empire, I’m not going to apologise for our past,” she said, while acknowledging there are “bad things” about the British Empire.

We’d argue slavery is a Pretty Bad Thing about the British Empire if you ask us, Suella.

So controversial were the home secretary’s comments during Conservative Party Conference that her own government slapped down her remarks about wanting to leave the ECHR.

Ms Braverman had told a Spectator event: “My position personally is that ultimately, we do need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

“That is not government policy, I should say – government policy is to do everything we can within the convention, within the boundaries of the convention – but if that doesn’t work, then we will have to consider all options.”

A government source wasn’t particularly happy with those comments and said: “As Suella acknowledged, her personal views are contrary to government policy and if she wishes to make those views known within government, she should do so in a more appropriate setting.”

Ouch.

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