Suella Braverman was clinging on as Home Secretary last night in the face of growing Tory anger over her explosive attack on Scotland Yard.
Rishi Sunak is keeping “all options on the table” after the Cabinet minister wrote a bombshell article without his permission accusing the police of “playing favourites” by allowing pro-Palestine marches to go ahead.
Senior Tories rallied to “straight talking” Mrs Braverman’s defence and insisted she is simply reflecting public fury about demonstrations planned for Armistice Day.
But Conservative party sources said chief whip Simon Hart had been “inundated” with complaints from “very angry” MPs about the article.
“It comes after the tents row and comments about gay people. It is cumulative and people are very angry.
“There are not many MPs going out to support her,” the insider added.
The Prime Minister could sack Mrs Braverman depending on what details emerge once No 10 gets to the bottom of what happened.
His relationship with the Home Secretary was described last night as a “professional, work like one”.
Mrs Braverman was “unavailable” on Thursday to deal with requests for information from No 10 as she was attending a hospital appointment with a relative.
Senior Tories on the right of the party rallied around the Home Secretary last night.
Conservative MP Miriam Cates said Mrs Braverman’s language “reflects the public mood”.
She added: “The reaction to what she says in what you might call the Westminster bubble doesn’t really reflect what the rest of the public think.
“She’s very much representing what you might say is the mainstream view in the UK.”
Ex-Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said Mrs Braverman was “right to say what she did”.
He added: “Many say they want authentic politicians who tell it like it is – and then complain when they do so.
“She is in my view correct to call out a lack of even-handedness in the way some demonstrations, and indeed some opinions, are policed.
“Saying anything else invites people to disbelieve their eyes.”
But one senior Tory on the right insisted support for Mrs Braverman among his wing of the party was limited.
“I am dismayed by her comments,” the MP said. “The sentiments may be right but there are ways to say it.
“Look at the number of people who have gone out publicly to back her, it is not a huge number. She is not universally popular on the right of the party.”
An ally of Mrs Braverman’s said she has not breached the ministerial code because the article did not cover any policy issues and what language a Secretary of State uses is up to them.
“She has done nothing wrong,” they added. “It would be a pretty spurious reason to sack her.”
Conservative MP Sir Michael Fabricant said “mixed views” are being shared in Tory WhatsApp groups about Mrs Braverman.
The backbencher said he was “generally a fan” of Mrs Braverman but he did not agree with comments she made earlier this week about rough sleepers doing so as a lifestyle choice.
He added: “There are mixed views in the Conservative Party. I’m a member of a number of their WhatsApp groups and I see what some of my colleagues are saying.
“Some are robustly defending Suella Braverman as I’m trying to do – not 100 per cent but 90 per cent. There are others who totally condemn what she said.”
Transport Secretary Mark Harper rejected his Cabinet colleague’s attack on the Met and insisted “police forces are focused on upholding the law without fear or favour”.
One Whitehall source said Mrs Braverman was an “attention seeker” who looks like she is trying to “undermine” the Prime Minister.
The row erupted after the Home Secretary wrote in The Times that “there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters”.
“Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law,” she said.
Mrs Braverman also prompted anger and confusion among some in Northern Ireland, after she compared the pro-Palestinian demonstrations to unspecified marches in the region.
London Minister Paul Scully said: “I would just say to every minister and every political leader: we have got to use our language carefully and we have got to make sure that we concentrate on dampening things down rather than fuelling that hatred and division.”
Mr Sunak will make a decision once No 10 has uncovered how the article was passed to the Times despite a demand for significant changes to be made to it first.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, who has been tipped as a candidate to replace Mrs Braverman, declined to criticise her comments.
“There is a lot weighing and I know, I have seen up close, Suella working incredibly hard, and also incredibly constructively, with the police in order to deal with these challenges.
“Suella, like me and like many others, is deeply concerned about what may happen if a march goes ahead on Armistice Day,” he told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.
Tim Loughton, a member of the Home Affairs committee, said the Home Secretary should let Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley “get on with the job”.
