Suella Braverman has acknowledged sending six separate instances of professional correspondence to her personal email.
The Home Secretary wrote a letter to Dame Diana Johnson, the head of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, in which she offered more information regarding the security incident that prompted her resignation from Ms Truss’s government.
Ms. Braverman apologized for the error in the letter, but she also acknowledged that on six separate occasions, she had forwarded official papers from her government email to her personal email address.
In an effort to refute accusations that she offered a false narrative of the breach, Ms. Braverman outlined her version of what happened.
Ms. Braverman said in her resignation letter that she “rapidly” changed officials and immediately told Cabinet Secretary Simon Case of her error.
However, according to sources, the Home Secretary’s chronology backs up the story given in her resignation letter.
This came about as a result of the BBC learning that a confidential email received from Ms. Braverman’s personal account instructed the receiver to “delete and disregard it.”
The BBC also suggested it took four hours before the Cabinet Secretary was alerted to the issue.
Sources say Ms Braverman has a ‘chronology’ of events (Image: Getty)
But a Government source said: “We have a chronology where everything squares and shows her resignation is correct.”
They said that Mr Case was informed by officials alerted by Ms Braverman.
Another source told the Telegraph: “As soon as possible in the middle of a packed schedule, officials were told and contacted the Cabinet Secretary.”
The Home Secretary resigned from Ms Truss’ Government two weeks ago, admitting to having “sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague as part of policy engagement, and with the aim of garnering support for government policy on migration”.
Mr Sunak defended his appointment of Ms Braverman at PMQs last week (Image: Getty)
She was then reappointed by Mr Sunak after he became Prime Minister, just six days after she resigned.
Last week, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called for an investigation into Ms Braverman.
Hitting out at Mr Sunak, she said: “The Prime Minister promised integrity, professionalism, accountability.
“And yet they discarded the Ministerial Code, reappointed someone who breached core professional standards and who has now run away from basic accountability to this house.
“It is the same old Tory chaos and it is letting the country down.”
She also said the claim that Ms Braverman acted “rapidly” appeared misleading and “that she was instead caught out and still took several hours to report it”.
“This raises doubts about the veracity of Suella Braverman’s response and how seriously she takes these matters, in addition to the many unanswered questions concerning other purported security breaches and leak probes,” she continued.
Integrity, professionalism, and accountability were pledged by Rishi Sunak.
Failure on all three counts occurs when Suella Braverman is reappointed to one of the most crucial positions in government just six days after the breach occurred.
At PMQs last week, Mr. Sunak defended his choice to hire Ms. Braverman, saying: “The Home Secretary made a judgment error, but she recognized that, she raised the issue, and she accepted her mistake.
“For this reason, I was thrilled to welcome her back into a united cabinet that offers expertise and stability to the center of government,” he continued.