The news that Rishi Sunak had a backbone transplant over the weekend and has finally sacked his Home Secretary is likely to put a small spring in the step of many this morning.

It seemed inevitable that something had to give. No Prime Minister can allow such open challenge to his authority to carry on for long, especially in a Party where the virtues of loyalty and discipline have been so clearly forgotten. And, in attacking the police in such a ham-fisted, confrontational manner, Suella Braverman had broken a number of the rules of politics, incited rioting at the Cenotaph and disobeyed, it seems, a direct instruction from Number 10.

Was it a deliberate decision to wait until after the weekend to fire her? To see what would happen in order to have a more overt excuse to fire her? Perhaps the decision was made to preempt her resignation. Either way, Suella gets to be the “princess over the water” for the more right-wing cultural warriors in the Parliamentary Party, in prime position for a post-General Election leadership contest.

The Conservative response is to attempt to make a virtue of throwing her under a bus:

🚨 HERE WE GO

Today @RishiSunak strengthens his team in Government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future.

Stay tuned for the latest. pic.twitter.com/ianN6edyDU

— Conservatives (@Conservatives) November 13, 2023

and we can probably expect that process to continue later in the week when the Supreme Court is expected to rule against the Rwanda policy on asylum seekers.

Ed Davey has responded to the news as follows:

Suella Braverman was never fit to be Home Secretary. Rishi Sunak knew this and he still appointed her.

It was the Prime Minister’s sheer cowardice that kept her in the job even for this long. We are witnessing a broken party and a broken government, both of which are breaking this country.

This whole sorry saga has shown the Conservative party for what they truly are.

An unruly mob more focussed on fighting and undermining each other rather than standing up for their constituents and fixing the country that they have broken.

They need to put us all out of our misery and call a general election now.

And now, it’s reshuffle time…