Suella Braverman admits using personal email for official documents six times

The home secretary has admitted sending official documents to her personal email address on six different occasions during her short time in the post.

Suella Braverman claimed that the documents she emailed “did not pose any risk to national security” and were not secret or top secret.

It comes after she resigned from her role for sending files outside of government – before being reappointed six days later.

Ms Braverman said the documents she sent outside the government’s secure network were “related to public lines to take in interviews” or took place when she was conducting meetings virtually.

She made the admission in a letter to the chair of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, in which she also outlined further details of the breach of the ministerial code which triggered her previous resignation.

Ms Braverman said the Home Office review “confirmed that I had never used my government email to send any information to external recipients outside of government”.

Other than on 19 October, the event which triggered her resignation, “I have not used my personal email account to send official Home Office documents to other people outside of government”.

It comes as she faces growing pressure over her handling of the troubled Manston immigration processing centre in Kent.

Addressing the episode which led to her resignation, Ms Braverman said there was nothing “market-sensitive” about the draft written ministerial statement she sent from her private email address to a Tory backbencher.

The home secretary said Liz Truss, who was at the time prime minister, had “specifically” asked her to engage with parliamentary colleagues to discuss the content of the statement.

The draft WMS included “high-level proposals for liberalising our migration rules”, including “increasing the number of low-skilled foreign workers, as well as general plans for controlling illegal migration”, she said.

Ms Braverman said: “I want the Home Affairs Select Committee to be reassured on the very important point about the nature of the document that I shared by mistake.

“The draft WMS did not contain any information relating to national security, the intelligence agencies, cyber security or law enforcement.

“It did not contain details of any particular case work. It did not contain any market-sensitive data as all the data contained in the document was already in the public domain. It was not classified as secret or top secret.”

Diana Johnson, the committee chair who received the letter from the home secretary, said Ms Braverman needed to come to the House of Commons to explain her position.

“I think she needs to come today to the House of Commons. I don’t think she needs to be summoned,” she told Times Radio.

“I think she needs to decide she’s coming herself and she’s going to make a statement and deal with all of these issues and questions that have been rising up over the last few weeks since she was reappointed.

“She's got to deal with this because until this is dealt with, she can’t get on and do the job of home secretary.”

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the letter “fails to answer all the serious questions about the home secretary’s irresponsible conduct”.

She added that Ms Braverman’s comments showed “that neither she nor the prime minister recognise the gravity of these issues”.

“There are still significant inconsistencies in the information in this letter and her original resignation letter," Ms Cooper said.

“There are also still no answers about alleged security breaches and leak investigations while she was attorney general or about whether the prime minister ignored the cabinet secretary’s advice in reappointing her just six days after she was forced to resign.”