Suella Braverman reported to Financial Conduct Authority over leak

Nadhim Zahawi defends Suella Braverman as Home Secretary

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The Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been reported to the Financial Conduct Authority over the email leak which forced her to resign from Liz Truss’ Government. The Labour Party referred the embattled Home Secretary to the financial watchdog over concerns of a breach of insider trading laws. Shadow city minister Tulip Siddiq asked the FCA to investigate the leaking of information.

Rishi Sunak has been under sustained pressure since deciding to reappoint Ms Braverman to the role six days after she was forced out by Ms Truss while she was still Prime Minister.

Without authorisation, Ms Braverman sent draft immigration policy to Tory backbencher Sir John Hayes from a personal email address, inadvertently also sending it to a staff member of another Conservative MP.

Ms Siddiq questioned whether the minister sharing “highly sensitive” information regarding “growth visas” could have been a breach under market abuse regulation.

She said the information could have affected Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts, saying “policy changes can constitute inside information”.

A spokesman for Ms Braverman, who has apologised for her “errors of judgment”, declined to comment when approached by Press Association.

Earlier this week, the Home Secretary was forced to provide further details about the security breach in a letter to Dame Diana Johnson, the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee’s chairwoman.

In the letter, Ms Braverman apologised for the breach but admitted that she sent official documents from her Government email to her personal email address on six occasions.

The Home Secretary laid out her version of events in an attempt to counter claims that she gave a misleading account of the breach.

In her resignation letter, Ms Braverman said she “rapidly” alerted officials and informed Cabinet Secretary Simon Case as soon as she realised her mistake.

This came after the BBC revealed an email sent from Ms Braverman’s personal account told the recipient of the confidential message to “delete and ignore it”.

The BBC also suggested it took four hours before the Cabinet Secretary was alerted to the issue.

But sources said the Home Secretary’s chronology supports the account provided in her resignation letter.

Ms Braverman’s appointment, which took place just six days after she resigned, has been described as “a sop to the right of the party” as thanks for coming out for Mr Sunak and not Boris Johnson last week.

Some MPs on the right of the party, who are already unhappy with Mr Sunak, have warned that if Ms Braverman is sacked then he may see letters start going in asking for a leadership election.

Last week, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called for an investigation into Ms Braverman.

Hitting out at Mr Sunak, she said: “The Prime Minister promised integrity, professionalism, accountability.

“And yet they discarded the Ministerial Code, reappointed someone who breached core professional standards and who has now run away from basic accountability to this house.

“It is the same old Tory chaos and it is letting the country down.”

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