Unearthed video shows Suella Braverman praising Afghan schemes she now says were ‘appalling’
In a humiliating episode for Reform’s Suella Braverman, a video has resurfaced showing her praising the very Afghan resettlement scheme […]
In a humiliating episode for Reform’s Suella Braverman, a video has resurfaced showing her praising the very Afghan resettlement scheme she has now labelled as ‘appalling’.
The video from 2023, shows Braverman, who was then a Tory MP, in the Commons saying how proud she was ‘of the high number of Afghans who have been resettled and welcomed into the United Kingdom’.
Around 20,000 people from Afghanistan moved to the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
Both schemes officially closed to new applications and referrals on July 1, 2025, though applications submitted before that deadline continue to be processed.
The schemes were designed for current or former locally employed staff who worked for or with the UK Government in Afghanistan in exposed or meaningful roles and faced a serious threat to life.
Speaking in the Commons in June 2023, when she was the Tory home secretary, Braverman said: “I am very proud of the high number of Afghans who have been resettled and welcomed into the United Kingdom.
“Between 2015 and 2022, almost 50,000 people have been resettled and relocated, of which over 21,000 were through the Afghan schemes – the ACRS and ARAP.
“And over 28,000 were through established resettlement schemes related to other countries. So I think that is a good track record.”
Since joining Reform however, Braverman has been a vocal critic of the scheme she once praised.
She criticised the scheme on social media after Zia Yusuf, Reform’s home affairs spokesman, accused former Tory defence secretary Ben Wallace of being “a traitor to Britain” for allowing thousands of Afghans to come to the UK.
In a post on X yesterday, Braverman said ARAP was “an appalling scheme that put huge pressure on the Home Office and yet another mistake by the last Tory government”.
She called both ARAP AND ACRS ‘Great Betrayals by the last Conservative government.’
Her post was even community noted by X with context about how she previously supported the scheme.
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