Tory MPs tell Braverman: quit the PM pitch and stick to the day job

Home secretary accused of undermining Sunak in speech on migration

- Pippa Crerar, Peter Walker

Suella Braverman was accused by despairing Conservative MPs of undermining Rishi Sunak's authority and making a bid for the future leadership of the party yesterday after a partisan speech railing against experts and elites.

The home secretary delivered a highly personal blueprint for a political philosophy to take on the "radical left", in what was interpreted as a pitch to be the right's next candidate made at a National Conservatism conference in London.

Senior Tory MPs privately condemned the overture to become the party's leader should the Tories lose the next election. One told the Guardian: "Rishi needs to make it clear to her that she is either a team player or a backbencher."

In an attempt to reclaim the right wing of his party, the prime minister will today urge European leaders to crack down on immigration through tighter policing of its borders, after his surprise meeting with Ukraine's president yesterday was overshadowed by Braverman's rhetoric.

Tory MPs have grown increasingly uneasy since the huge local election losses and ministers are braced for a record increase in immigration figures next week, which threaten to undermine pledges to reduce the number of arrivals.

Sunak has also faced criticism from the pro-Brexit right of his party since it was announced that just 600 of the 4,000 EU laws he pledged to revoke by the end of the year would be scrapped.

Conservative MPs were invited for drinks with the prime minister in the Downing Street garden to mark the coronation last night. He was expected to try to calm nerves and draw a line under any potential mutiny.

However, multiple MPs suggested Sunak should warn Braverman to stick to her role as home secretary by getting to grips with problems in the migration system, rather than giving her permission to undermine his leadership.