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Suella Braverman admitted to sending official documents from her government email to her personal email address on six separate occasions.
In a letter to the Home Affairs Committee, she again apologized for breaching security rules and gave her version of events which led to her resignation under former Prime Minister Liz Truss.
A review by the Home Office confirmed she had used her personal email address to send an official government document, and in her letter Ms Braverman added: “I sent official documents from my government email to my personal email address in six cases.
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“The review confirmed that these instances all occurred in circumstances where I held virtual meetings at the Home Office or connected to public interview lines.”
Ms Braverman is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons later today.
She is facing a second scandal amid the worsening migrant crisis across the Channel overcrowding at Manston processing centre.
Labor accused her of being silent on the matter as there were still questions about her “own security breaches”.
In his letter, the Home Secretary insisted that the four-page document containing high-level migration policy proposals did not contain any information related to national security and was not marked as top secret.
She said the reason she sent the documents on her personal phone is that she often joins meetings virtually and while on the go.
Ms Braverman said: “It was not possible to use one device to hold the meetings and read the documents at the same time.
“Therefore, I sometimes and exceptionally emailed them to my personal email account so that I could read the documents to carry out essential government business.”
Ms. Braverman’s team supports – as he wrote in his resignation letter – that she flagged the incident quickly and brought it to the attention of Cabinet Secretary Simon Case.
Others claim to be the cabinet secretary did not learn of the violation from Mrs. Braverman.
Here is the chronology of events as she laid them out in her letter:
-7.25am: Sent an email from a personal account to Rt Hon Sir John Hayes and his secretary but entered the wrong address, sending a document to someone else ‘inadvertently and unknowingly’
– 9am: Went to back-to-back meetings
– 10am: Checked personal emails, saw a reply from someone he doesn’t know saying “this was sent to me by mistake” – “realized I made a mistake”
– 10.02am: Reply says “please delete and ignore. Thanks” then goes to meetings
– 11.20 am: Two voters meet
– 11.50am: I ran into then Chief Whip Wendy Morton and Andrew Percy MP “coincidentally” who said my email had gone to a member of his staff and “he is concerned”
– 12pm: Returned to the Parliamentary Office to “take action on my mistake”
Ms Braverman said that when she realized she had accidentally sent the email to an employee of MP Andrew Percy, she “decided to inform my staff as soon as possible”.
But before informing the civil service, she said she bumped into the chief whip and Mr Percy “by chance”, who expressed his concerns to her.
After that meeting, Ms Braverman asked a special adviser to tell her private secretary what had happened and the matter was then flagged to the cabinet secretary and the prime minister’s office.
The Home Secretary insisted: “As a result of my actions the Cabinet Secretary was notified for the first time.”
She added: “Separately and unbeknownst to me at the time, the Chief Whip had also brought this issue to the notice of the Prime Minister. I was not aware of this until after these events.’
“More unanswered questions, more confusion and more chaos”
Labor said the letter “leaves more questions unanswered” about Ms Braverman’s “irresponsible behaviour” – including whether the prime minister ignored the cabinet secretary’s advice by reappointing her.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was also “amazing” that the Home Secretary “should seek further briefing on ‘what constitutes appropriate use of government and personal IT'”.
“Therefore this leaves more questions unanswered, more confusion and more chaos from the Home Secretary and the Government. This shows why Rishi Sunak was so irresponsible to re-appoint her to her post,” she said.
Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain said the home secretary had “admitted to breaking the rules on an industrial scale” and “must resign now”.
The prime minister “has full confidence” in the interior minister
The letter follows days of criticism of new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for reappointing Ms Braverman despite promising to govern “with integrity” when she takes office.
Labor has been demanding that the government release its assessments of Ms. Braverman’s security breachwith leader Sir Keir Starmer accusing Mr Sunak of brokering a “worthless securities-for-support deal” in the Tory leadership contest, which he won after getting Ms Braverman’s backing.
In the letter, Ms. Braverman said she apologized to Mr. Sunak when he entered No. 10, and publicly reiterated that apology.
“In my appointment discussion with the new prime minister, I raised that mistake and apologized to him, and I would like to do it again here,” she said.
“I have also assured the Prime Minister that I will not use my personal email for official business and confirmed that I understand and adhere to the ministerial code.”
After the letter was published, Downing Street said the Prime Minister had full confidence in the Home Secretary.
The spokesman also said Mr Sunak was relieved Ms Braverman understood the subsequent advice she was given.
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