The Iron Ladies seek leadership of the British Conservatives

Border protection

But in this mirror of the multiculturalism of the children and grandchildren of countries that were once colonies of the empire, a radical discourse about border protection is reflected, and its spokesmen are numerous, but above all the current Minister of the Interior, Suella Braverman, and her predecessor. , Priti Patel. At least two other figures are also emerging from the male political chorus promoting themselves as potential alternatives to Sunak in an informal race whose party conference a few weeks ago was a great event to try to gain followers.

This is the case of Kemi Badenoch and Claire Coutinho, the latter perhaps the most famous of the four who took up her first portfolio last August, as Energy and Net Zero Minister, succeeding Grant Shapps. An ardent and convinced supporter of Sunak, who has been an adviser to him, the 38-year-old is considered a “rising star” in Conservative circles and has risen through the ranks since she was first appointed as an MP in 2019. She is an MP. A career very similar to the “Prime Minister” style. Her parents are Indian, both family doctors in the British National Health System, who immigrated to the UK in the 1970s, and she was born in London in 1985. She studied at a private school and then mathematics and philosophy at Oxford. As a Member of Parliament, she has voted on several occasions in favor of stricter immigration policies.

Kemi Badenoch (43 years old) was also not well known, despite holding various positions since winning her seat in 2017, until she resigned from the government in July 2022 and ran to replace Boris Johnson in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership elections. She was born in Wimbledon. From London to Nigerian parents, she spent her childhood between Lagos and the United States, but returned to Britain at the age of sixteen, and now bettors say that she is one of the candidates to succeed Sunak in the event of a competition for the party. Leadership. It’s not a crazy idea for this to happen soon, considering that Labor is still ahead in the polls even though Sunak has already been in power for a year. The current Secretary of Commerce and Business is a critic of Critical Race Theory and has expressed views like this: “I tell my kids this is the best country in the world to be black, because it’s a country that sees people, not labels.

The fall of his popularity

A much stronger public image is that of Priti Patel, although she currently has much less chance of rising to the top of the Conservative Party. Patel served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022, a position she left during the changes brought about by the arrival of Liz Truss. Her popularity has declined, not only thanks to her critics, who after her departure accused her of being “the worst Home Secretary in living memory”, but also to opponents within the Conservative Party. The 51-year-old Eurosceptic and fierce Johnson ally is the granddaughter of Indian grandparents and Ugandan-born parents who came to the UK to escape the horrors of Idi Amin’s regime.

“My parents were expelled from Uganda,” he said in an interview a few years ago, explaining that they “arrived in the UK with nothing, worked hard and set up a successful shop.” At the time, “there was a desire to work hard and succeed so that I wouldn’t have to depend on anyone else,” she noted. “Coming from a country where they oppress you means you want to work hard and contribute to the society you end up in,” she noted, statements that contradict policies. On immigration and refugees, which she championed as minister, and which became more stringent in the rhetoric of his successor, Suella Braverman.

Sue Ellen Cassiana Braverman, whose real name is 43, has given some inflammatory speeches. In a statement that sparked a storm, he told delegates at the Conservative Party’s annual conference that the Human Rights Act, introduced by Tony Blair’s government, should be renamed the Criminal Rights Act because it gave an advantage to criminals and “illegal immigrants”. “

Migration “hurricane”

In addition, he warned of the arrival of a “hurricane” of mass migration. Knowing that his positions raise further hesitation because of his origins — his parents, from Kenya and the Mauritius islands, immigrated to London in the 1960s — he explained that the “winds of change that took my father around the world” in the 20th century “were only a storm compared to the coming hurricane.” “Because The choice to move from a poorer country to a richer one today is not just a dream for billions of people. “It’s a completely realistic perspective,” says the often-referred champion of “British values”, who dreams of being the next tenant of Downing Street and once took the spotlight. In recent days, others have changed their way of behaving in the context of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The most criticism came this week when he attacked the Metropolitan Police after they gave the green light to a pro-Palestinian protest in London. In an article published by The Times, Braverman accused the London police of “playing favoritism” and not treating “pro-Palestinian mobs” in the same way as nationalist and right-wing protesters. Downing Street distanced themselves from publication, saying the text had “not been approved by No. 10”.

Minister of Transport, Mark HarperShe stated that “police forces are focused on enforcing the law without fear or favour”, while Labor spokeswoman Yvette Cooper denounced that Braverman was “completely out of control”.