Return Of Braverman 'A Risk' For Sunak's Election Hopes

The reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary could blow a hole in Rishi Sunak's hopes of holding on to power at the next general election, polling guru Sir John Curtice has said.

- Andrew Woodcock

Prof Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said that no government in modern times has ever survived at the ballot box following a fiscal crisis on the scale of last month's market collapse, which sparked by Liz Truss's mini-Budget.

With his personal ratings running far ahead of those of the Conservative Party, Mr Sunak's best chance of turning the polls around in the two years that remain is to persuade voters that the party has changed since the days of Ms Truss, Boris Johnson and Partygate, and now "plays by the rules", said the professor. In those terms, restoring Ms Braverman after just six days to the post she lost due to a breach of the ministerial code represents a "risk", Prof Curtice told a briefing in Westminster.