Suella Braverman is not “entirely” to blame for the far-right protests which marred Armistice Day, a defence minister has said.
James Heappey also said he would not have used the language the home secretary did in her controversial article in The Times last week.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to sack Braverman over her comments, which have been blamed for the trouble caused by right-wingers near the Cenotaph on Saturday.
Asked on Times Radio this morning for his views on the home secretary’s conduct, Heappey said: “I wouldn’t have used some of the words that the home secretary used in her article.
“But I also think that it would be incorrect to say that those protests, the counter-protests, were entirely a consequence of what she wrote.
“Tommy Robinson and his [English Defence League] thugs were planning their counter protest well before the home secretary published that article.”
Heappey’s comments suggest he believes the home secretary was at least partly to blame for the trouble.
In her Times op-ed, Braverman accused the police of having a left-wing bias and repeated her criticism of the pro-Palestine demonstrations she has previously described as “hate marches”.
It later emerged that she had not had Downing Street’s approval for the article to appear
Speculation is mounting that Sunak could carry out a cabinet reshuffle as early as today in which Braverman could be removed from her job.
However, the home secretary remained defiant last night, posting a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) in which she said London was being “polluted” by the pro-Palestine marches.