Suella Braverman: Fareham MP sacked amid cabinet reshuffle as foreign secretary James Cleverly replaces her

A No 10 source said the Prime Minister “asked Suella Braverman to leave Government and she has accepted”, with James Cleverly taking her job. The Conservatives said Mr Sunak is carrying out a wider reshuffle which “strengthens his team in Government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future”.

But sacking one of the leading figures on the Tory right could pose difficulties for the Prime Minister as he seeks to get his party united behind him and ready for a general election expected next year. Mrs Braverman, MP for Fareham, said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary.”

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Ominously for Mr Sunak, she added: “I will have more to say in due course.” Mr Cleverly’s appointment as home secretary leaves a vacancy in his former role of foreign secretary. Former prime minister David Cameron has also made a shock return to government as foreign secretary, and has also been made a peer.

News of Mrs Braverman’s exit came as minister of state for the armed forces James Heappey was touring broadcast studios. Minutes before she was sacked, he had told LBC that Mr Sunak and his team in No 10 had been “very clear she (Mrs Braverman) has his confidence and, in that sense, one would imagine that she will continue”.

But he was told on air during an ITV Good Morning Britain interview that she had been sacked, leaving him to say: “Your viewers will be enjoying my discomfort, but it is in this case difficult to offer commentary when I just don’t know what is going on.” Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Suella Braverman was never fit to be home secretary. Rishi Sunak knew this and he still appointed her.

“It was the Prime Minister’s sheer cowardice that kept her in the job even for this long. We are witnessing a broken party and a broken Government, both of which are breaking this country.” Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Rishi Sunak should never have brought Suella Braverman back into Government in the first place.

"Her list of sackable offences is long and she should have been shown the door much sooner. Whether it was her demeaning and disgraceful comments about rough sleeping being a ‘lifestyle choice’, or her divisive rhetoric and untruths about multi-culturalism having failed it has been clear for some time that she is not fit for public office.”

Speaking about his new role, Mr Cleverly said it was an “honour to be appointed as home secretary”. “The goal is clear,” he added. “My job is to keep people in this country safe.”

Lord Cameron said: “Working to help ensure stability and security on the global stage is both essential and squarely in our national interest. International security is vital for our domestic security.

“Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong and capable Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time.”