[ad_1]
LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) – British Home Secretary Suella Braverman said on Monday she had sent official government documents to her personal email address six times, raising fresh concerns about breaches of ministerial rules while in charge of the nation’s security.
Braverman was reappointed home affairs minister by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week, six days after she resigned from the same post for sending a government document from her personal email to a member of parliament’s staff in breach of rules.
Braverman said on that occasion she didn’t have her state phone with her, so she asked her assistant to send the document to her personal email.
Sunak’s first days in office were marred by controversy over her reappointment. Opposition parties and even some members of parliament from the ruling Conservative Party have questioned her suitability for the role.
In a letter to the House Home Affairs Committee on Monday, Braverman said a review by her department identified six incidents between Sept. 6 and Oct. 19 when she herself transferred documents to her personal email.
Braverman said she transferred the documents so she could read them while conducting virtual meetings and interviews on her state phone.
However, Braverman argued that none of the documents related to national security, intelligence agency or cybersecurity issues and did not pose a national security risk.
“The review confirmed that all of these cases occurred in circumstances where I held virtual meetings at the Home Office or connected to public interview lines,” she said.
“Some of these meetings were hastily arranged in response to urgent operational matters relating to Home Office priorities.”
The revelation also raises questions about her claim in her resignation on October 19 that she personally informed the head of the civil service about sending a sensitive document from her personal phone.
At the time, Braverman said that as soon as she realized her mistake, she “quickly” alerted “official channels.”
However, that claim appears to contradict her chronology of events laid out in the letter, as she admitted it took several hours to officially report her mistake.
Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Nick McPhee
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
[ad_2]
Source link