Rishi Sunak has prompted fury by bringing back leaky Suella Braverman as Home Secretary just six days after she resigned for a security breach.
Cabinet Secretary Simon Case - the head of the civil service who found two breaches of the ministerial code last week - is “livid and very concerned”, according to The Times.
Labour today wrote to Mr Case demanding "a full investigation into the security breaches by the Home Secretary, including the warnings given to the Prime Minister."
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper wrote: "Given the Prime Minister’s decision to reappoint her to the Cabinet post overseeing national security, it is vital for the public to have transparency on what occurred."
Yet Ms Braverman has claimed it was only a “technical infringement of the rules” - and today her allies doubled down in spectacular fashion.
As she appeared at Rishi Sunak's first meeting of his new Cabinet, a source told The Times it was a “confected row” because “ministers do this all the time".
"They use private email and are also WhatsApping documents all the time too.”
Labour MP Jess Phillips said: “Weird thing for person in charge of law and order to say. People also commit crime all the time, it's not a defence.”
Former Labour MP Anna Turley tweeted: “Ok - so I broke the law but it’s ok cos everyone does it. I hope they civil service and security service are keeping a close eye.”
Former Attorney General Ms Braverman admitted last week she had “sent an official document from my personal email to a trusted parliamentary colleague”.
The Information Commissioner’s Office demanded a government review in July over ministers using “private email, WhatsApp and other similar messaging apps”.
It came as Mr Sunak was accused of striking a “grubby deal” to give the right-winger her old job back in exchange for winning her support for the leadership on Sunday.
Ms Braverman has said it is her "dream" and "obsession" to see a plane take off with asylum seekers bound for Rwanda.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly denied she was offered the job in exchange for her endorsement, saying: “Suella made a mistake. She has said herself that she made a mistake.
“She's apologised for that mistake and she stood down at the time.”
She did not apologise in her letter. Instead she said: “I have made a mistake: I accept responsibility: I resign.”
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "One moment Rishi Sunak is telling us he will lead a Government of integrity.
“Then another minute he's appointing someone back into the Cabinet who'd been sacked only the week before for a serious breach of security and a potential breach of the ministerial code.
"It was a grubby deal that he struck in order to get over the line and become Prime Minister.”
The Lib Dems demanded a “full independent inquiry by the Cabinet Office into her appointment, including any promises Sunak made to her behind closed doors”.
The party’s Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael added: “Suella Braverman's appointment makes a mockery of Rishi Sunak's claims to be bringing integrity to Number 10.
"If it is confirmed that Suella Braverman repeatedly broke the ministerial code and threatened national security, she must be sacked.
"A Home Secretary who broke the rules is not fit for a Home Office which keeps the rules."
Former Downing Street chief of staff Gavin Barwell has said he would not have given Suella Braverman the role of Home Secretary in the Cabinet reshuffle.
Asked if her reappointment undermines Rishi Sunak's claim to be a Prime Minister of integrity, Lord Barwell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I can entirely understand why he wanted to include her.
"She's clearly the sort of champion of the ERG group of MPs, but I think given the events behind her very recent dismissal, personally I wouldn't have put her back in quite a senior job.
"So, looking at the day as a whole yesterday, and I think it was a pretty good start, the speech I think struck the right tone, that appointment of Suella is probably the one sort of contentious note."
Mr Sunak, who earlier promised that his new Government would be one of "integrity", immediately faced questions about the decision to rehire Ms Braverman as Labour accused the new PM of "putting party before country".
