Standing Up

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By Chris MasonPolitical editor, BBC News

For as long as Suella Braverman has been Rishi Sunak 's home secretary, she has had a licence to say the unsayable.

Say stuff in public some of her colleagues would only ever dare say in private.

Say stuff in public some of her colleagues wouldn't even say in private.

How do we know she has this licence?

Because the lack of it would mean being sacked.

Many instantly leap to ascribe a motive to the home secretary's interventions: her ambitions to lead the Conservative Party One Day .

Those ambitions are real.

But Mrs Braverman's primary motivation is she wants to articulate her authentic view - and high office won't stop her doing that.

Or at least it won't for as long as she holds it.

For any public figure to question the integrity of The Police would be incendiary.

For the home secretary to do it is astonishing.

That is not to say she is necessarily wrong: I regularly hear, in private, concerns from some Conservatives about the policing of demonstrations.

Perceived Double Standards . Some protesters treated apparently more leniently than others.

Plenty, including those in policing, would acknowledge it is perfectly legitimate for politicians to scrutinise The Work of any vital, publicly funded organisations.

But: public demonstrations are " The Brain surgery of policing, " counters Tom Winsor , the former Chief Inspector of Constabulary.

In other words, not easy.

There are a blizzard of complicating factors The Police have to juggle, not least the scale of what confronts them.

And they are dynamic, potentially dangerous, rapidly evolving events.

Where does all this leave the Prime Minister , the home secretary, the government and the Conservative Party ?

Let's remind ourselves of Suella Braverman 's recent remarks.

A year ago, she.

Her deputy Robert Jenrick wouldn't repeat The Word .

A month ago, Mrs Braverman - and suggested too many were too squeamish about immigration.

Again, it was her colleagues left publicly squeamish when asked if they agreed with her language.

A week or so ago, another intervention.

The pro-Palestinian protests

And now.

" These latest comments are unhinged, " one senior Conservative tells me.

A senior Conservative MP adds: " The home secretary's awfulness is now a reflection on the Prime Minister . Keeping Her in post is damaging him. "

A third source, a senior Tory, claims her remarks about Northern Ireland are " wholly offensive and ignorant. "

So What does the Prime Minister make of this?

A No 10 source would not comment on " internal processes" when I asked if they had seen and approved the home secretary's article before it was published.

Those around Mrs Braverman claimed Downing Street had been sent the full text in advance, as normal.

You will note these two positions don't tessellate as neatly as they could.

Could it be that No10 did see it, but didn't sign it off? We'll keep asking to try to find out.

Expect Labour to return again and again and again to the home secretary's catalogue of comments.

" The PM's weakness when It Comes to Standing Up to Suella is the Most Shocking thing in all this, " claimed a senior Labour source.

Incendiary remarks from the home secretary punctuated by a period of months of less attention-grabbing were arguably a politically useful pressure valve for Rishi Sunak .

She was a senior government figure willing to articulate views easily found on The Conservative backbenches.

The question for the Prime Minister now is whether the ratcheting frequency of her interventions lead No10 to conclude it is unsustainable for her to stay.

Or lead her to conclude, given the at best tepid public support of her colleagues, that she has outstayed her welcome.

Suella Braverman is Making News . Not for the First Time . And not for The Last .

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Source of news: bbc.com