You can’t always control when you’re going to burst out laughing at something knee-slappingly hilarious, but you’d think the Home Secretary would at least consider the optics of being photographed cackling on the roof of a migrant centre in Rwanda – especially given she’s already under fire for her anti-immigration policies.
Visiting properties which could be used to house people asylum seekers deported from the UK, Metro reports that Braverman joked:
These houses are really beautiful, great quality, really welcoming, and I really like your interior designer. I need some advice for myself.
No idea if that joke was the catalyst for the laughter in the photo, but naturally the suggestion by her detractors is that she’s cracking up about all the migrants she’s going to banish to Rwanda:
Suella Braverman in Rwanda having a good laugh about all the asylum seekers that she is going to dump there pic.twitter.com/AjEM9rZgBQ
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) March 19, 2023
The cropped image doing the rounds isn’t exactly a good look for the Home Secretary, whose image is already being Photoshopped into pictures of natural disasters and death camps of the past, although this one has to be my personal favourite:
The two-day visit to Rwanda was already mired in controversy after it was reported that media outlets considered to be right-wing were invited along on the tax-payer funded trip (GB News, Daily Mail, the Express, the Telegraph), whereas The Guardian, Independent, and i Newspaper, as well as BBC and Sky News, were excluded.
Again, it’s always unfortunate to be caught laughing in inappropriate locations (and especially given the context here), but I think it’s something that can happen to anyone for a brief moment, whether at a funeral or while visiting Auschwitz or whatever. There is often a place for humour even during very sad times! Not that anyone will ever be convinced that Suella Braverman feels sad about any of this, especially when she’s daft enough to allow a photo like this to be taken.
Wonder if Gary Lineker has anything to say about it…
