An education minister has refused to say whether the prime minister has confidence in Home Secretary Suella Braverman following her controversial comments about the Metropolitan Police’s staffing of Armistice Day.

Robert Halfon was asked repeatedly if Rishi Sunak had confidence in his home secretary by Sky News, but was unable to answer.

Instead, he said it was the prime minister’s focus to ensure “remembrance services go ahead peacefully”.

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On three occasions, he refused to confirm if Mr Sunak backed his home secretary.

Asked about the article published in The Times on Wednesday evening – which Downing Street did not clear – Mr Halfon said there was an internal investigation into how it made it into print without sign-off from the prime minister’s team.

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Yesterday morning, Downing Street claimed it had full confidence in the home secretary – although she has come under considerable criticism from within her party since.

In her article in The Times, Ms Braverman likened pro-Palestine demonstrations to marches seen in Northern Ireland, and accused the Met of holding “double standards” and being more lenient to left-wing protests.

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