Indian-Origin UK Minister Suella Braverman Wins Party Seat Election

Britain's Indian-origin Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has won a key contest with a fellow Conservative Party member of Parliament to be selected as the candidate for her redrawn constituency.

The 43-year-old senior Cabinet minister, of Goan and Tamil heritage, had a face-off with fellow Tory MP Flick Drummond in an internal party vote on Wednesday over who gets to contest from a new proposed constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire in the next general election-- expected in 2024.

Under the Boundary Commission of England's changes, Braverman's original seat of Fareham in south-east England is being re-carved and Drummond's Meon Valley is being scrapped under the new parliamentary boundaries.

"I am honoured and humbled to have been adopted by Conservatives members to be their Parliamentary Candidate for the new Fareham and Waterlooville constituency," Braverman tweeted soon after the vote-- which she reportedly won 77 to 54.

"I thank my Parliamentary colleague Flick Drummond MP for her excellent work for the people of Meon Valley," she said.

The fight had been labelled by media commentators here as the "Battle of Waterlooville", after the town in Hampshire at the heart of the redrawn boundaries.

Drummond said she was "incredibly disappointed" by the election result but said she would "continue to be Meon Valley MP" until the next election, a position she has held since 2019.

The selection vote comes as a number of constituency changes have been proposed across England as part of the 2023 Boundary Review, the final recommendations of which are due to be presented to the UK Parliament by July 1 to be adopted ahead of the next general election. The Boundary Commission for England says it has closed its "final consultation" and that it is analysing the feedback received.

Braverman's victory came soon after the UK Home Office announced that it would be using a barge, or a docked vessel at Portland Port in Dorset, south-west England, to accommodate illegal migrants and asylum seekers in the UK.

The move is aimed at reducing the reliance on "expensive hotels" and to deliver what the government says would be a "more orderly, cost effective and sustainable asylum accommodation system". The UK government says it costs the British taxpayer over GBP 6 million a day to house illegal migrants in hotels while their asylum claims are processed and want to find alternatives to cut down on costs.

Now the barge, called the Bibby Stockholm, will accommodate about 500 single adult males whilst their asylum claims are processed. The Home Office says it will provide basic and functional accommodation, and healthcare provision, catering facilities and 24/7 security will be in place on board, to minimise the disruption to local communities. People whose claims are refused and have exhausted their appeal rights will be removed from the UK.

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