Should Fareham MP Suella Braverman have got involved in Cummingsgate? | The News
Attorney General and Fareham MP Suella Braverman insists she has no regrets over tweeting her support of Dominic Cummings's decision to make a now infamous family trip from London to Durham during lockdown.
She told the Commons Justice Committee that when she said 'protecting one’s family is what any good parent does', it did not amount to a legal view.
Yet she tweeted this on May 23, while a police investigation into Mr Cummings's actions continued and following a Downing Street statement that insisted he had behaved 'reasonably and legally'.
Technically, Mrs Braverman may be right. She did not offer a wholly legal opinion on the matter.
She says: 'I don’t think it was outside the remit of what I can or cannot do or what I can or cannot say and I don’t think that it breached any constitutional boundaries.’
But it seemed unusual that somebody in her position would seek to so publicly support someone who was accused of breaking the law before any judgment was reached.
And it has left her open to allegations that her tweet amounted to political interference in the criminal justice process.
Boris Johnson went to great lengths to demonstrate his support for his right hand man Mr Cummings and senior Tory ministers and MPs were also quickly wheeled out to back him by tweeting and doing the rounds of the TV channels and radio stations.
So was Mrs Braverman encouraged by No 10 to do likewise?
We will never know. But whether she was prompted to post her tweet or did so independently, the question remains; should the chief legal adviser to the Crown and the person in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service have allowed herself to become involved at all?