Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has hit out at the ‘hypocrisy’ of the Mayor of Brussels, after shutting down a National Conservatism event in the city.
Brussels police intercepted the event which Braverman and GB News presenter Nigel Farage were speaking at, ordering it to be shut down.
Speaking to Nigel on GB News exclusively after the event, Braverman hit out at the Mayor’s attempt to “stamp out freedom of speech”, calling it “astonishing”.
Reflecting on the event before it was interjected, Braverman was thankful that she and Nigel were able to make their speeches “in favour of controlling our borders and protecting our communities amongst like-minded democrats”.
Suella Braverman hit out at Brussels for shutting down the National Conservatism conference
GB News
Braverman told GB News: “It’s frankly staggering that the Mayor of Brussels has deployed his thought police to cancel what is a peaceful event focused on how we can better represent the millions of people around the European continent.
“The hypocrisy is also astonishing. Only last year, the Mayor of Brussels hosted the mayor of Tehran, here in Brussels. He’s okay to have the mayor of an autocratic regime in his city, but those of us who want to talk about rights radicalism, as I spoke about today, or standing up for sovereignty and democracy, they attempt to cancel us.”
The ex-Home Secretary likened the interception by Brussels to a quote by former Tory leader Margaret Thatcher, and how she was “always cheered up” when her opponents took “evermore ridiculous and extremist and far-fetched attempts to shut her down”, because it “shows they’ve lost the political argument”.
Discussing Britain’s exit from the European Union, Braverman told Nigel: “I think it’s incredibly concerning that we’ve seen here an attempt to snuff out and stamp out freedom of speech. You and I are conservative centre-right politicians who voted to leave the European Union through a democratic and legitimate process.
Nigel Farage was left furious as police in Brussels took over the event
GB News
“The reason why we’ve not managed to stop the boats in the UK is because the Strasbourg Court intervened at the 11th hour through an opaque process without reasons to stop sending flights to Rwanda.”
Braverman said her speech at the NatCon event in Brussels was to “speak on behalf of the British people and on behalf of my constituents”, who sent her to Parliament to stop the boats.
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She fumed: “Talking about that surely cannot be a criminal activity.”
Nigel was in agreement with Braverman, admitting: “I felt this morning, if ever I doubted for a minute – not that I did, really – but what Brexit was about, the fact that this conference was questioning ever closer union within the European Union.
“And since the judgment, the Swiss judgement recently, of the role of the ECHR, didn’t that really tell us we’re on the right track?”
Nigel Farage spoke to the former Home Secretary in Brussels following the conference’s shut down
GB News
Braverman responded: “I tried when I was Home Secretary to fix this. Unfortunately, I was blocked by the Prime Minister, but I’ve come to the view, and I was calling for it since 2022, that we now need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. We need to do it now.
“I will keep calling for it, and if the Prime Minister is serious about stopping the boats, he said he would do whatever it takes. We’ve not succeeded in stopping the boats, the British people are fed up with 30,000 people last year crossing the Channel, and £6million a day is being spent on the hotels.”
When asked about the Prime Minister’s position on leaving the ECHR, Braverman continued: “I worked very closely with the Prime Minister on this issue for over a year and his view, as expressed to me, was that he does not support leaving the European Convention on Human Rights.
“We’re hearing a lot of noises from him right now. I do believe the British people would see them as inauthentic. I think if he’s really serious about stopping the boats, he’ll do what is necessary. And what’s necessary is to invoke Article 58 now.”
