London, Nov 12 (IANS): Rishi Sunak's authority as UK prime minister will be in tatters unless he sacks his "controversial and divisive" home secretary, Suella Braverman, within days, senior Tories have said, the media reported.

As anger at her incendiary claims of police bias and open defiance of No 10 grow, the expectation among most Conservatives is that Sunak will dismiss Braverman early this week, opening the way for a cabinet reshuffle that, his allies hope, could yet revitalise his premiership, The Guardian reported.

While the home secretary has some support among a rump of rightwing MPs, party whips have been overwhelmed by demands from moderate backbenchers for Downing Street to dismiss Braverman as soon as possible.

One former cabinet minister told 'The Observer' that although Braverman had clearly been "trying to get fired" when she wrote an article for 'The Times' last week, in which she accused the police of showing bias in favour of pro-Palestinian "mobs", Sunak has no option but to dismiss her.

"Not sacking her would be utterly fatal because, at that point, as well as being an unpopular prime minister, he becomes a weak and unpopular prime minister," The Guardian reported.

Braverman was also doing "untold damage" to the party's electoral appeal, he said: "A lot of colleagues are saying that the underlying Suella message is just driving voters away in the south-east of England. That cannot be allowed to go on."

Referring to Braverman's recent suggestion that homeless people were on the streets because they had made a "lifestyle choice", the senior Tory added: "That was crossing the Rubicon. When you start attacking homeless people and saying it is a lifestyle choice, that is evidently ignorant, as well as nasty."

Asked how angry he was at Braverman's behaviour on a scale of one to 10, the senior Tory answered "11", The Guardian reported.

The rage at the home secretary's defiance - she was asked to tone down her Times article substantially but refused - and her constant playing to what she sees as her rightwing base, is widely shared.

Another senior Tory referred to her as a "monster" with views that were completely unacceptable to anyone in the political mainstream.