Suella Braverman was warned ‘hate speech’ could inspire far right

Senior lawyers had told home secretary about risks of inflammatory rhetoric long before she referred to asylum seekers as an invasion'

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, who last week caused outrage by referring to asylum seekers entering the UK as an invasion", had been warned by government lawyers that inflammatory immigration rhetoric risked inspiring a far-right terror attack.

Braverman's comments came just one day after a man with links to the far right threw firebombs at a Dover immigration centre. On Saturday, counter-terrorism police announced they had found evidence that the attack was motivated by an extreme rightwing" terrorist ideology.