Suella Braverman has thanked Home Office civil servants for their work on the government’s migrant crackdown amid a row over an email in which she appeared to criticise them.
The message, which was sent to thousands of Conservative Party members in the home secretary’s name last night, accused “left-wing” civil servants of blocking the government’s attempts to stop Channel boat crossings.
It led to Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, writing to Rishi Sunak demanding an apology and accusing Braverman of breaking the ministerial code.
However, it has emerged that the home secretary did not see the fundraising email - which had a copy of her signature at the bottom - before it was sent out.
A source close to Braverman said: “It was a CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) product.”
Tory bosses have now launched a probe into how the email was sent without sign-off from the minister.
A Conservative spokesperson said: “This was a CCHQ email and the wording wasn’t seen by the Home Secretary. We are now reviewing our internal clearance processes.”
HuffPost UK has learned that Braverman today sent an email to all Home Office staff thanking them for their work on the Illegal Migration Bill.
In it, she praised the “outstanding support from the whole department” and said officials’ work had been a “credit to the department and the civil service”.
She said: “There’s much more to do as the bill makes its way through parliament and we then turn to operationalising it, but yesterday was the critical first step. Thank you.”
However, she made no reference to the CCHQ email criticising civil servants.
A source insisted the message to Home Office staff was what the minister would normally do in the circumstances, but it will be seen as an olive branch to officials following the email row.
Under the bill, anyone coming to the UK via an illegal route will be deported and banned from ever returning.