DON’T BE surprised if we see more of Suella Braverman, the current Attorney General – at least after her return from maternity leave.
Her populist leanings and views on Brexit, the legal profession, and on education, have put her at loggerheads with what her ardent supporters would dub, the liberal establishment. The media narrative might be of a combative populist politician, but in person, she is very polite, friendly and expansive, especially about family and her formative years.
Now Attorney General and on expected maternity leave (at the time GG2 Power List went to press), it is easy to misunderstand her brand of Conservativism, which is very rooted in family and lived experience.
Both her parents are of Indian origin, but neither were born on the sub-continent or have ever lived there – her mother, a nurse, came to Scotland first from Mauritius, her father to London, from Kenya, as a refugee and worked in a factory in 1968 on the recommendation of someone who had made the same journey a couple of months earlier.
“Dad got off the plane at Heathrow Airport and he was 19 years old and he was by himself, no parents, no family, nothing,” she told the GG2 Power List in a Zoom interaction late last year.
Braverman is an only child and excelled later in school to win a place at Cambridge, spent time studying in France and became a successful commercial barrister before winning her first General Election seat in 2015.
She represents Fareham in Hampshire and it is one of the safest Conservative seats around – she had a majority at the last election of over 26,000 and took nearly 65 per cent of the vote.
Her parents-to-be met through mutual friends at a wedding in London and Braverman was born in Harrow but grew up in Wembley.
Both her parents enjoyed successful careers eventually – her mother moving into management while working for the NHS for 45 years and her father worked in the City for a time.
“I would consider them to be working class people – they hadn’t been to university, but they really valued the opportunities Britain gave them.”
Though she was educated privately at secondary school age and won a scholarship (with reduced fees) to the independent all-girls Heathfield School in Pinner, her parents’ and her own experience of education in the state sector, proved very critical in shaping her beliefs. In addition, her mother’s own brand of Conservatism as a local councillor, tell a powerful story and perhaps better illustrate the type of Conservative she is.
On her entry into parliament, she served on an education committee and remains a very passionate supporter of Free Schools – whereby groups of parents can join together and set up a school outside of a local authority remit, but with government cash.
“It was Brent and I started off in a state primary and there were lots of strikes and it was very heavily unionised and my parents were getting frustrated with the quality of education,” she recounted.
The scholarship helped her to get out of the state system and she believes passionately in the Conservatives’ policy of ‘Free Schools’.
Braverman helped to create the Michaela Community School in Wembley in 2014, along with Katharine Birbalsingh, a prominent headteacher well-known for her strong beliefs in traditional education.
It is very highly regarded and was deemed outstanding by Ofsted in 2017.
Braverman’s involvement is personal and tells you a lot about her general outlook.
“I wanted to get out of a small house, I wanted my parents to have a better life and I really saw education as the empowering force.”
Her academic prowess came late in life and was spurred by something far beyond the school gates. “I had a wake-up call around 11/12 after my dad was made redundant during the 1990s recession. I was a slow developer, and was quite bewildered by school and academia for many years. My parents really struggled to pay the fees – I wasn’t on a full scholarship and I thought I have got to make the most of this and apply myself.
“It was a big turning point in my life – I really did start to apply myself.”
It was a very multi-cultural school and Braverman made the most of her time at Heathfield, not just academically, but achieving a Grade Eight in piano and completing a Duke of Edinburgh Award – a youth achievement scheme and ended up as head girl.
She said about a third of the school was Asian and there were also many pupils from a Jewish background. Of her own religious leanings, it has been reported that she is a practising Buddhist, but it is obvious she is comfortable with all faiths and none.
She grew up as a Catholic, influenced by her father who has family in Goa and has the surname Fernandes, which she changed when she married. Her father continues to go to Goa to see family. Her mum is from a Hindu background. “I had regular trips to the temple – my family have a very open attitude to religion.”
Far more controversially, some find it hard to believe that someone who studied in France and describes herself as a “Francophile” should be such an ardent Brexiteer and was chair of the leading Conservative Brexit group, the European Research Group 2017-18 and resigned from the government department responsible for Brexit, dissatisfied with former Theresa May’s Brexit plan.
She spent time both as an undergraduate and as a Masters Law student in France.
“I’ve always been very strong in languages and my mum encouraged me to speak in French – it being one of the main languages in Mauritius. “I absolutely loved France and became a Francophile.
“I started off as an agnostic (on the European Union/EU) and I didn’t really have a position – but as a lawyer you can’t fail but come into contact with the fact that our courts don’t have the final say (when part of the EU). Our decision-making has been outsourced.”
She argues that British law is respected around the world and that we don’t need other countries to help us frame our own rules now.
As Attorney General she has come under fire for being critical of lawyers, arguing that some are just conducting politics by another route.
“I have no hesitation in standing up for our lawyers. However, it’s also true that there are those who are part of the profession who do fall short of those very high professional standards.
“And they we have regulators, we have a code of conduct. And generally, no action is taken against them. But they still exist. They practise in the immigration sphere,” she said referring to the criticism.
On the issue of diversity in the legal profession, it is clear that she is not comfortable with the idea of structural or institutional racism.
She doesn’t dismiss it – or refer to it directly but does have a more positive view on diversity in general.
“In the vast majority of professional situations, it doesn’t really matter what your colour of your skin is.
“More diversity is a good thing, all forms racial, gender (diversity) and I think having a mixed pool of people in any environment is always going to enhance the quality of decisionmaking, processes and the outcome.
“I believe in a meritocracy.”
The slightly critical glib voice might riposte – who doesn’t?
She feels more Asian and black and other minority community individuals must not be deterred or simply assume the system is weighted against them.
“You can make it – if I can do it.” She gave birth to her first child, a son in July 2019 and perhaps her latest will be as impressed by as she was by hers.