Yvette Cooper has hit back at Suella Braverman after she claimed that “Islamists” are now running the country.
The former home secretary’s latest outburst came in the wake of Wednesday night’s chaotic scenes in the Commons over Gaza.
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is fighting to save his job after he controversially chose a Labour amendment to an SNP motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in the war between Israel and Hamas.
He said he did so because of fears of a backlash against MPs from pro-Palestinian campaigners.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman said: “I may have been sacked because I spoke out against the appeasement of Islamists, but I would do it again because we need to wake up to what we are sleep-walking into: a ghettoised society where free expression and British values are diluted. Where sharia law, the Islamist mob and anti-Semites take over communities.”
She went on: “The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now.
“They have bullied the Labour Party, they have bullied our institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission.”
But on Radio Four’s Today programme this morning, shadow home secretary Cooper condemned her former opposite number’s comments.
She said: “I think this is total nonsense. It’s sadly what you would expect from Suella Braverman, who has a history of just deliberately saying inflammatory things for the sake of headlines.
“If you recall the way in which she attacked the police in the run-up to Armistice Day and the impact that had on protests and on attacks on the police at that time. That was the reason she was sacked from being home secretary.
“I don’t think we should take seriously her comments.”
Rishi Sunak yesterday criticised Hoyle for his decision, saying he should not have changed parliament’s procedures in the face of “intimidation or aggressive behaviour”.
And Braverman’s successor as home secretary, James Cleverly, this morning also criticised the Speaker’s actions, but said he backed him to stay in his job.
He said: “Elected officials have got to act without fear or favour. They need to be defended, and we’re absolutely determined to do that.
“We should not be changing our procedures in response to threats or intimidation. That would indicate that the threats and the intimidation is working. That’s the opposite of the message that we want to send.”