Will Suella Braverman's confrontational style cost her the Tory top spot?
Is Braverman right to push forward with her confrontational, and often controversial, approach? Or, should she take more time to reflect in this post-election period?
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In brief:
- Many Conservatives are advocating for a slower, more reflective approach to how the party moves forward.
- Braverman's confrontational approach, including her recent comments on the Progress Pride flag, may be hurting her chances of becoming the next Conservative party leader.
After a historic loss at the polls, the general feeling within the Conservative party right now is to slow down and do a careful post-mortem of the general election, and the years prior, to work out how the Conservative party can best move forward.
Emily Maitlis observed this sentiment in action when she attended a PopCon (Popular Conservatism) conference yesterday, a conference for the right-wing faction of the Conservative party. “The one thing that every speaker started with, was this sense of having to listen and having to learn and not rushing” she said.
During her speech Braverman said the party needed to “face the facts as to why we ended up in this situation and importantly what we do about it moving forward”, but she also used her time during the video-message to discuss the smoking ban being a gimmick, how demoralised UK police were and immigration.
“There was an intensity to how she was speaking, which was not reciprocated by those who were listening,” Emily observed. “I got the sense that she is going at this in a sort of attack dog manner. There is no subtlety.”
Although neither she, nor anyone else, has put in an official bid to be Conservative party leader yet, it’s widely thought that Braverman will put herself forward. She stood as a candidate to succeed Boris Johnson in the July–September Conservative Party leadership election; losing in the second round and going on to throw her support behind Liz Truss.
The former Home Secretary made headlines on Monday after referring to the Progress Pride flag flying on government buildings as “monstrous” during a speech at the National Conservatism conference in the US. She said the flag symbolised support for “the mutilation of children in our hospitals.”
The Progress flag says to me is one monstrous thing: That I was a member of a government that presided over the mutilation of children in our hospitals and from our schools.
— National Conservatism (@NatConTalk) July 8, 2024
-Former British Home Secretary @SuellaBraverman at NatCon 4 pic.twitter.com/bfUWNuBxpP
The Progress Pride flag is a redesign of the original Pride flag to represent more diverse communities, including marginalised people of colour in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the trans community, and those living with HIV/AIDS.
Braverman may not subscribe to the theory that slow and steady wins the race, but how will this “attack dog” approach play out if Braverman does throw her hat in the ring?
“To start, effectively, her leadership campaign, talking about her party being a party to the mutilation of children, has astounded, I think, many Conservative circles, at least on the centre and left of the party,” Lewis Goodall said.
“I don't think she has much chance of becoming Tory leader because I don't think the numbers are there in the Conservative party in parliament. But she is destroying any chance she has to get through to the party at large, I would say.”