UK Home Secretary won’t face investigation over speeding ticket meddling claims

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom interior minister won't face investigation over allegations that she tried to pull strings after getting a speeding ticket, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Wednesday, in an attempt to lay to rest one of several ethics claims dogging the Conservative government.

Sunak said he had consulted his standards adviser over the claims about Home Secretary Suella Braverman and decided her actions didn't breach the code of conduct for government ministers.

But Sunak gently chastised Braverman, saying “a better course of action could have been taken to avoid giving rise to the perception of impropriety.”

The case centres on a speeding ticket Braverman got last year when she was the UK attorney general.

The Sunday Times reported that Braverman had asked civil servants to arrange a private speed-awareness session for her, rather than the usual group course for drivers who commit minor offences.

The newspaper said that civil servants refused to get involved.

In a letter to Sunak, Braverman said she had made inquiries about doing the driving course in a way that maintained her “security and privacy” as a senior government minister with police protection.

“I recognise how some people have construed this as me seeking to avoid sanction — at no point was that the intention or outcome,” Braverman said.

She said she ultimately opted to pay a fine and receive demerit points on her license rather than taking the course.

“I regret that my attempt to find a way to participate in the course in a manner that would have satisfied these (security and privacy) concerns has enabled some to construe a potential conflict of interest,” Braverman said.

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