London: Succeeding her colleague of Indian descent Priti Patel, Suella Braverman of Indian origin was on Tuesday appointed as the UK’s new Home Secretary.
The 42-year-old Conservative Party member of Parliament for Fareham in south-east England was among the first contenders to throw her hat in the ring to replace Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister. She served as the Attorney General in the Boris Johnson-led government.
Braverman was named as the Home Secretary by newly-appointed Prime Minister Liz Truss.
The mother of two children is the daughter of Hindu Tamil mother Uma and Goan-origin father Christie Fernandes. Her mother migrated to the UK from Mauritius while her father migrated from Kenya in the 1960s.
Reportedly, Braverman will be tasked with projects such as the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, which has faced legal challenges.
“I want to embed the opportunities of Brexit and tidy up the outstanding issues… and cut taxes,” said Braverman, a prominent member of the pro-Brexit wing of the Conservatives who wants a clear break from Europe, including taking the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
“They loved Britain. It gave them hope. It gave them security. This country gave them an opportunity. I think my background’s really informed by my approach to politics,” said Braverman about her parents in her leadership campaign launch video in July.
However, she was knocked out in the second round of the initial ballot of Tory MPs and threw her support behind Truss, who as Prime Minister has rewarded her with one of the highest offices in the UK government.
“Liz is ready now to be PM. She won’t need to learn on the job. And the job is hard and needs to be done properly. The party has had a difficult six years and stability is urgently and swiftly needed,” Braverman said of her future boss at Downing Street.
The Cambridge University law graduate married Rael Braverman in 2018 and her maternity leave famously brought about an overdue legal change last year to allow her to remain a Cabinet minister while away to give birth to their second child.
Braverman is a Buddhist who attends the London Buddhist Centre regularly and took her oath of office in Parliament on the ‘Dhammapada’ scripture of Lord Buddha’s sayings.
Meanwhile, Liz Truss created history by picking a non-white top team, as apart from Suella Braverman, she appointed Therese Coffey as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.
Other members of Truss’s top team include – Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor of the Exchequer and James Cleverly has been made Foreign Secretary. It is for the first time in UK history that no white men will occupy four top offices of the country.
(With agencies’ input)