Suella Braverman rows back on the ‘stop the Channel boats’ pledge

The whole point about making five key pledges, as Rishi Sunak did at the start of the year, is to give the average voter a consistent message. The idea is that such pledges, which should have been judiciously drawn-up based upon extensive opinion research, are hammered home again and again until the typical person far away from the Westminster Village has digested them.

What is Sunak’s administration for? Surely everyone knows that: to halve inflation this year, grow the economy, make sure our national debt is falling, cut NHS waiting and stop the boats.

The last of those pledges induced a particularly vigorous round of derision from erstwhile Tory voters who have been let down as regards illegal immigration too many times already. They simply did not believe Sunak to be serious.

So for Home Secretary Suella Braverman to start throwing in caveats just a month or so down the line will be a cause of great exasperation in Downing Street.