Who is Suella Braverman? 10 points on UK’s new Indian-origin Home Secretary

Suella Braverman, 42, was appointed Home Secretary by UK PM Liz Truss.

Britain's new Prime Minister Liz Truss hit the ground running at Downing Street on Tuesday by announcing some of the senior-most Cabinet posts, including Indian-origin Suella Braverman as her Home Secretary. Here is what you need to know about Braverman:

1. Suella Braverman was born on April 3, 1980 and christened Sue-Ellen Cassiana Fernandes.

2. Braverman was born in the UK to parents of Indian origin. She is of Tamil and Goan ancestry. Her father, Christie Fernandes, has his roots in Goa, while her mother, Uma, was born into a Hindu Tamil Mauritian family. Both her parents emigrated to the UK in the 1960s.

3. Braverman was educated at Heathfield School in London and went on to study Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge. She also completed a master's degree in European and French law at Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

4. She started her political career in 2005, contesting the general election from Leicester East where she finished in the second place.

5. Braverman was elected as the Conservative MP for Fareham in May 2015. She has been a member of parliament ever since, having been re-elected in 2017 and then again in 2019.

6. Suella Braverman, a member of UK’s Conservative Party, previously served as Attorney General between February 2020 and September 2022. She was also previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from January to November 2018.

7. The 42-year-old is a member of the Triratna Buddhist Community. She took her oath of office in Parliament on the 'Dhammapada'.

8. On September 6, she was appointed UK’s Secretary of State for the Home Department with oversight of policing and immigration – pegged as one of the government’s toughest jobs that will put her legal acumen to the test.

9. She is one of 28 so-called "Spartan" Tory MPs, who refused to back ex-prime minister Theresa May's Brexit deal on all three occasions it was voted on in parliament.

10. Braverman’s credentials as an arch-Brexiteer and right-wing culture warrior have made her popular with Conservative Party members.

(With inputs from AFP)