DISMAY is growing within the Tory Party and beyond at the far-right antics and pronouncements of Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

There is speculation that Ms Braverman is positioning herself for a post-election Conservative leadership contest in which her authoritarian demagogy may play well with the party’s aged and intolerant membership base.

In recent days, she has described pro-Palestinian solidarity demonstrations as “hate marches” and urged the police to ban them, while also claiming that homelessness is a “lifestyle choice.”

She wanted the government’s programme to include legislation to fine local authorities or charities for issuing tents to homeless people. As with her drive to ban protests over Gaza, she was unsuccessful.

The Home Secretary has previous made remarks about Britain facing an “invasion” of refugees.

Some speculate that dismissal is what Ms Braverman craves, since it would allow her to retreat to the back benches as a martyr to nationalist populism, poised to pounce after an anticipated general election defeat sends the Conservatives into opposition.

Tory peer Sayed Warsi has branded the Home Secretary “divisive and dangerous,” saying that she prefers creating “culture wars” to fixing problems. 

And senior Conservative MP Bob Blackman has attacked her “poor choice of language” over the homeless.

Tory deputy chairwoman Nickie Aiken also dissociated herself from Ms Braverman’s remarks on the issue.

“I have met scores of rough sleepers over the years and I can’t recall one of them telling me it was a lifestyle choice,” she said.

Another Tory, Gloucester MP Richard Graham, has said that “the language of the Home Secretary, whether on tents or on marches, is unhelpful to cohesion in our communities and is not in my name.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other senior colleagues have pointedly declined to endorse Ms Braverman’s comments.