Suella Braverman

At the 2005 general election, Braverman contested Leicester East, finishing in second place behind Labour's Keith Vaz.[13] She sought selection as the Conservative candidate in Bexhill and Battle, but was unsuccessful, and was eventually selected to be the Conservative candidate in Fareham.[14] Braverman also sought election to the London Assembly at the 2012 Assembly elections, being placed fourth on the Conservative London-wide list.[15] She missed out, however; as only the first three candidates were elected.

Braverman was elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Fareham in 2015 with 56.1% of the vote and a majority of 22,262.[16] She gave her maiden speech on 1 June 2015.[17] She has taken a particular interest in education, home affairs and justice and has written for The Daily Telegraph, Bright Blue, i News, HuffPost, Brexit Central and ConservativeHome.[18]

From 2015 to 2017, Braverman was a member of the Education Select Committee and the Education, Skills and the Economy Sub-Committee.[19] Between November 2015 and February 2016, she was a member of the Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill.[20] Braverman chaired the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People from September 2016 to May 2017. Working with the charity Young Enterprise and the money-saving expert Martin Lewis, she led the APPG's inquiry into the provision of financial education in schools and launched its report, Financial Education in Schools: Two Years On – Job Done?,[21] which called for better financial education in schools.

She is a Commissioner on the Social Market Foundation commission on inequality in education,[22] a cross-party initiative which is examining the causes and effects of inequality in education at primary and secondary levels in England and Wales. Braverman joined the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme in 2016, graduating from the scheme in 2017.[23]

Braverman opened a Westminster Hall debate[24] in the House of Commons[25] on the failings of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and has chaired meetings with the Trust's executives along with other MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hampshire in which instances of poor care quality and the deaths of patients were investigated.[26] She was a member of the panel of an inquiry, led by think-tank British Future, to examine how the government can protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK.[27]

Braverman campaigned to leave the European Union in the 2016 EU membership referendum;[28] a majority (55%) of votes in her constituency were for leaving.[29] She was Chair of the European Research Group, a pro-Leave group of Conservative MPs, until her promotion to ministerial office; she was replaced by Jacob Rees-Mogg.[30] Following the 2017 general election, Braverman was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the ministers of the Treasury.[31]

During the January 2018 reshuffle, she was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union.[32] She resigned on the same day that Davis' successor, Dominic Raab, resigned as Brexit Secretary in protest at Theresa May's draft deal (15 November 2018), which was the day after the Prime Minister released the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement.[33]

In March 2019, Braverman was criticised for stating that "As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism". Critics claimed that she was referring to an antisemitic conspiracy theory often employed by Neo-Nazis and alt-right activists as a means of attacking Jewish people involved in politics. She was criticised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews as well as multiple anti-racism charities.[34] In a subsequent statement the Board of Deputies declared that "We believe she is in no way antisemitic and did not intentionally use antisemitic language", and found that she "is clearly a good friend of the Jewish community" and that the Board was "sorry to see that the whole matter has caused distress".[35]