Do we like them?

Do we like Suella Braverman?

Our score: 1 out of 10. A long run of her own words against trans people and others, and I couldn't verify any real good to set against it.

Braverman has been a Conservative MP since 2015, serving as Attorney General and then Home Secretary. She was forced out of the Home Office in October 2022 under Liz Truss, came back under Rishi Sunak, and was sacked in November 2023. She spent more than two decades with the Tories before walking.

The sacking came after she wrote an article criticising how London police handled pro-Palestinian protests, which Downing Street hadn't approved. Opponents and some of her own side were furious. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a Home Secretary holding police to account or one inflaming a tense moment.

Then there's the speeding saga. The Sunday Times reported that she was accused of asking civil servants to arrange a private one-to-one speed awareness course, which might have breached the ministerial code. She told the Commons she paid the fine and took the penalty after the provider said no private course was on offer. No breach was found in the pages I read.

Now the harm check, which is where she falls down. In July 2024 she told a conservative conference in Washington that the Progress Pride flag flying at the Home Office was “monstrous”, and said her party had presided over the mutilation of children in hospitals. LGBTQ+ Conservatives called her tone hysterical and divisive. Earlier she called for a total ban on transitioning for under-18s.

It isn't only trans people. As Home Secretary she claimed many asylum seekers pretend to be gay to game the system, and peers called out those comments in the House of Lords as belittling to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. That's her own words, repeated in public office.

Her switch to Reform UK was pitched as a stand against Tory broken promises on immigration. Supporters see a politician who says the same thing whatever party she's in; critics see someone who has moved further along the same road. Either way, it's a bigger platform for the same message.