Labour’s Chris Bryant has accused Suella Braverman of showing “hatred” after the home secretary made a string of controversial comments.
On BBC Question Time, the shadow minister said there is “no place for hate on our streets, but there’s no place for hate in the Home Office either”.
It comes after the Tory minister accused the police of being biased towards left-wing protesters – days after calling pro-Palestine demos “hate marches” and saying that rough sleeping is a “lifestyle choice”.
Appearing on the broadcaster’s flagship politics show, which this week came from Llandudno, Bryant outlined how Jewish children in the UK feel they’re unable to go to school with the star of David showing on their school uniform.
He continued: “That is a very worrying place to be in. But I say this, it is absolutely right that there’s no place for hate on our streets, but there’s no place for hate in the Home Office either.
“I think when you’re home secretary, you have a very special responsibility not to undermine the police in doing their job properly and that’s effectively what she’s done.
“She’s not commenting on something that happened six months ago. She’s commenting on a disagreement that she’s had this week with the police and I think the police should be allowed to do their job properly.
“It’s a fundamental premise of our system that politicians don’t tell police officers who you can and who you can’t arrest. We write the laws and then the police implement the laws.”
When asked by presenter Fiona Bruce for examples, Bryant said: “I think she’s shown hatred for a series of different groups over the last few months.
“For instance, I think it was completely inappropriate of her to say that homelessness is a lifestyle choice.
“How can that be? Homeless people? I think she’s betraying a degree of hatred in that.”
He added Braverman should “go” but Rishi Sunak is “too weak to sack her”.
In her latest outburst, in an article for The Times, she said the police were guilty of “playing politics” by favouring some protesters over others.
Braverman’s comments come amid the ongoing controversy over this weekend’s pro-Palestine march, which coincides with Armistice Day.
Both Labour and the Lib Dems have called on Rishi Sunak to sack Braverman over the remarks, which came after Metropolitan Police commissioner Mark Rowley refused to ban Saturday’s march.
The home secretary is also facing a backlash from Tory MPs over the controversy.
One told HuffPost UK: “She’s toast. Rishi wants to sack her but she is trying to go over the top to make it more difficult for him to do it because it looks like he’s buckling to press and Labour pressure.”
A former cabinet minister said: “It’s all about her leadership ambitions, but she’s backed Sunak into a corner. If he sacks her now and Saturday’s march turns into a riot, then she’s proved right.”
“Colleagues understand what she’s up to and they find it very depressing.”