Jeremy Hunt has become the most senior member of the government to distance himself from Suella Braverman, as pressure continues to mount on the prime minister to sack his embattled home secretary.
The chancellor said he would not have used the kind of inflammatory language used by Braverman in an article this week in the Times, in which she argued the police were biased in the way they deal with different protests.
Braverman has been accused of undermining the independence of the Metropolitan police, Britain’s biggest force, by urging them to ban a pro-Palestinian march due to take place in central London on Saturday.
Hunt said: “As many other cabinet ministers have said, the words that she used are not words that I myself would have used.
“But I have a productive relationship with her as a colleague and I have always given her the money that she needs to fund police, bring down crime and to fund the immigration and asylum system.”
Hunt’s comments add to a tumultuous week for the home secretary, who is facing growing criticism over her language over both policing and homelessness, which she has separately described as a “lifestyle choice”.
Downing Street said on Thursday it was investigating how Braverman came to publish her article – in which she compared the pro-Palestinian demonstrators to marchers in Northern Ireland – without incorporating major changes demanded by No 10.
A spokesperson for Rishi Sunak said on Thursday the prime minister continued to have confidence in his home secretary, though he was reported to be considering a formal investigation into whether she broke the ministerial code.
Some in the Conservatie party believe Sunak is leaving Braverman in place over the weekend in case violence does break out during Saturday’s protests, but that he will remove her in a reshuffle that could come as soon as next week.
As Sunak considers her fate, a growing number of ministers are either distancing themselves from her language or openly criticising it.
Asked by LBC whether he would have written an article without getting prime ministerial clearance, the education minister Robert Halfon said: “No, I wouldn’t. Everything that I do in terms of articles or speeches, of course, must be signed off by No 10.”
Separately, Halfon told the BBC the decision over whether Braverman should stay in her job was “up to the prime minister”, adding: “It’s way beyond my paygrade in terms of who is in what position in his cabinet.”
He also rejected the argument that Saturday’s protest constituted a “hate march” and should be banned. “I respect absolutely the right for people to protest and most people on those marches are fair-minded,” he said.
“But there is an element – a significant element – in those marches, and that is extremists that people who’ve been shouting jihad and other slogans that have caused discomfort.”
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for the Cotswolds, suggested on Friday the prime minister might have to move Braverman.
“I think he will certainly want to have a very serious conversation with her to seek an undertaking from her that either she will handle it in a calmer, private way in future or possibly consider it’s time for her to move to another job in the cabinet,” he told the BBC. “I think we cannot carry on as we are.”
Braverman’s allies, however, have mounted a fightback, insisting her views were shared by the wider public and that she should be allowed to stay in her role.
Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: “No 10 either [have] confidence in Suella or they don’t. They said they do, so she should be allowed to get on with her job.”