Inside a jubilant Home Office as officials celebrate Braverman’s sacking

Today was a happy day for many civil servants in the Home Office, as they learned that Suella Braverman was leaving their department for a second time.

Her sacking came after weeks of mounting concern about inflammatory rhetoric over pro-Palestinian marches, but workers inside the department have long been concerned about a wave of policies that have proven unlawful in some cases and impossible to implement in others.

One asylum official spoken to by i labelled Ms Braverman an “incompetent moron”, while an immigration worker likened her tenure to a car “continually crashing”.

But the jubilation was muted for some. Ms Braverman has, after all, already returned as home secretary after resigning just last year, and the Government has not signalled any change in its plans to “stop the boats”.

Messages were flying around the Microsoft Teams favoured communications system at the Home Office Marsham Street HQ this morning as news of her sacking came through and officials began to speculate on what comes next.

The asylum official said many colleagues were deeply unhappy with Ms Braverman, adding: “She is too divisive – her rhetoric stinks. You can lean to the right without being a jerk or an incompetent moron.”

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They described the mood among staff as “bloody happy”, with a “general sense of relief” particularly in the “trenches” where junior workers have been under months of mounting pressure to make Ms Braverman’s pledge to detain and deport all small boat migrants work.

The asylum official said the appointment of James Cleverly – now the third person to hold the office in little over a year – was welcomed.

“He seems more even tempered and less abrasive, he’s not a zealot,” they added. The official voiced hope that Mr Cleverly would be more “personable” towards civil servants, so they feel able to “express constructive criticism and openly talk about the plans for what could go wrong”.

But a source close to Ms Braverman said that civil servants she “actually worked with” had not criticised her and that she had never been accused of any poor personal behaviour. “She was a genuinely liked and a polite boss, whether they liked her policies or not,” he added.

The reshuffle comes just two days before the Supreme Court rules on the deal to send small boat migrants to Rwanda.

The agreement has already been ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal, and there is a widespread expectation in the Home Office that the Government will lose again.

With no other “safe third countries” agreeing to forcible transfers of asylum seekers from the UK, the defeat would render Ms Braverman’s flagship vow to deport all small boat migrants impossible for the time being.

The Illegal Migration Act, passed earlier this year, imposes a “duty to remove” those arriving irregularly on the home secretary but the Government has not yet triggered it.

Internal training for the workers who will be charged with implementing the duty, which was expected to start in January, continued today amid the political upheaval.

But a Home Office immigration official said ministers’ theory that they could “stop the boats” with the punitive Rwanda plan had already turned into a “nightmare”.

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He told i that some civil servants believe Ms Braverman deliberately got herself sacked with open insubordination against Downing Street over pro-Palestinian marches so she would be out before the Rwanda judgment.

“Who knows what might happen under a new Home Secretary,” he added. “It’s possible that a Rwanda decision could lead to a wholesale change in the legislation.”

The official urged the Government to exert less “political interference” in the Home Office’s core areas of work and listen to civil servants’ expertise.

He likened the troubled department to “a car that veers across motorway lanes, left and right and reversing all over the place, and continually crashing as a result”.

Home Office officials are now waiting to see what Mr Cleverly’s next move will be. The normal process is for a new Secretary of State to be given a set of priority by the Prime Minister, and only then be briefed by senior civil servants about what is going on and the big issues they face.

Insiders say it is normal for incoming ministers to “stamp their mark” on a department with some quick decisions, and a review is expected that could see any “pet projects” of Ms Braverman’s that are no longer considered necessary axed.

A senior Civil Service source said few expect the “agenda will change” overall, but that Mr Cleverly has a “better reputation” for running a government department. He added: “Civil servants will focus on the job rather than the revolving doors, and they’re pretty busy right now.”