Islamists and extremists taking charge of Britain, says Suella Braverman

London: Britain’s former home secretary Suella Braverman has claimed the UK is losing its identity as a great nation where different faiths and races co-existed peacefully because Islamists and extremists are taking charge in all walks of life.

UK-born Braverman, who is of Indian heritage with a Goan-origin father and Tamil-origin mother, writes in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ on Friday in response to chaos in the House of Commons over a vote on the Israel-Gaza conflict earlier this week.

The 43-year-old backbench Tory MP claimed she was sacked by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for speaking out against the “appeasement of Islamists”, but that she would do it again because she feared the country was sleepwalking into a “ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted”.

“The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now,” writes Braverman.

“They have hijacked a by-election in a deprived town in northern England. We see their influence in our judiciary, our legal profession and our universities. And then they came for Parliament,” she said, with reference to clashes in Parliament that led to Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle apologising after an Opposition motion on ceasefire in Gaza could not be voted on.

“But this isn’t just about my colleagues in Parliament. Our values and freedoms are under attack in all walks of life...It’s not Islamophobic to challenge Islamist fanatics; it’s a civic duty,” writes Braverman.

“I may have been sacked because I spoke out against the appeasement of Islamists, but I would do it again because we need to wake up to what we are sleepwalking into: a ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted. Where Sharia law, the Islamist mob and anti-Semites take over communities. We need to overcome the fear of being labelled Islamophobic and speak truthfully,” she said.

Braverman, now on the backbenches of the Commons since being sacked as a Cabinet minister by Sunak last year, has been very vocal about race and migration issues.

The Opposition Labour Party hit back at her latest article to brand her words as “total nonsense”.

“It’s sadly what you would expect from Suella Braverman, who has a history of just deliberately saying inflammatory things for the sake of headlines,” shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC.

“If you recall the way in which she attacked the police in the run-up to Armistice Day and the impact that had on protests and on attacks on the police at that time. That was the reason she was sacked from being Home Secretary. I don’t think we should take seriously her comments,” she said.

Braverman’s unceremonious exit from the Cabinet in November last year came after another controversial newspaper article attacking the Metropolitan Police was published without clearance from 10 Downing Street.

Sunak had been under pressure from sections of his Conservative Party as well as faced attacks from the Opposition for allowing her to continue in her job after such a blatant breach of the ministerial code.