UK home secretary quits over security breach

British interior minister Suella Braverman said on Wednesday she had resigned after sending an official document from her personal email in a "technical infringement" of government rules.

"I have made a mistake, I accept responsibility; I resign," she said in a letter to Prime Minister Liz Truss, posted on Twitter.

Braverman also said she had "serious concerns" about the government's commitment to honouring commitments it made to voters at the last election.

She is the second senior minister to leave the government in less than a week.

Her departure heaps more pressure on Prime Minister Liz Truss as she fights to stay in power just over six weeks after she entered Downing Street.

My letter to the Prime Minister. pic.twitter.com/TaWO1PMOF2

— Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) October 19, 2022

Truss, who became prime minister on September 6, initially installed a cabinet of senior ministers who were loyal to her libertarian wing of the Conservative Party.

But the launch of a now-scrapped economic programme forced her to fire her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng and appoint Jeremy Hunt as his replacement.

Hunt had backed Truss's rival for the leadership, Rishi Sunak.

The Guardian reported that former transport minister Grant Shapps, who also backed Sunak, is now likely to replace Braverman.

Braverman, who also ran for the leadership of the party before throwing her support behind Truss, had been a deeply polarising figure during her short tenure.

She told the party's annual conference earlier this month that it was her "dream" to see a flight leaving Britain carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda.

"It is obvious to everyone that we are going through a tumultuous time," Braverman said in the letter to Truss.

"I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this government's commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration," Braverman wrote.