LONDON, Oct 31 — British Home Secretary Suella Braverman said today she had sent official government documents to her personal email address six times, raising fresh concerns about breaches of ministerial rules while in charge of the nation’s security.
Braverman was reappointed interior minister by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week, six days after she resigned from the same role for sending a government document from her personal email to an employee of a member of parliament in breach of the rules.
Braverman said on that occasion she did not have her government phone with her and so had asked her aide to send the document to her personal email.
Sunak’s early days in office have been overshadowed by the row about her reappointment. Opposition parties and even some members of parliament in the governing Conservative Party have questioned her suitability for the role.
In a letter to parliament’s Home Affairs Committee on Monday, Braverman said a review by her department had identified six incidents between Sept. 6 and Oct. 19, when she herself had transferred documents to her personal email.
Braverman said she transferred the documents so she could read the documents while conducting virtual meetings and interviews on her government phone.
However, Braverman maintained that none of the documents concerned national security, intelligence agency or cyber security matters and did not pose any risk to national security.
“The review confirmed that all of these occasions occurred in circumstances when I was conducting Home Office meetings virtually or related to public lines to take in interviews,” she said.
“Some of these meetings had been hastily arranged in response to urgent operational matters relating to Home Office priorities.”
The disclosure also raises questions about her claim, in her resignation latter on Oct. 19, to have personally informed the head of the civil service about sending a sensitive document from her personal phone.
At the time, Braverman said that as soon as she realised her mistake she “rapidly” alerted “official channels”.
However, that claim appears to be contradicted by her chronology of events set out in the letter after she admitted it took several hours to formally report her error. — Reuters
