Ex-home secretary blasts 'snowflake' future lawyers backing SQE petition

Former home secretary Suella Braverman has criticised aspiring solicitors backing a petition to reform the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), branding them "snowflakes" and accusing them of failing to grasp the nature of professional standards.

Writing in The Telegraph, Braverman - who was called to the Bar in 2005 and practised as a barrister before entering politics - said the petition was a "telling parable of our times", suggesting that "snowflake sensibility - once confined to undergraduate common rooms and the wilder fringes of social media - has now infected even the corridors of legal ambition".

She added that professional exams are meant to be hard: "It is meant to discriminate: not on the basis of race or class, but on the basis of skill, preparation and effort. That is not injustice. That is fairness."

Reform the SQE

Her comments follow the launch of the "Reform the SQE" petition, which now has more than 850 signatories. Created by someone claiming to be a trainee solicitor at an international firm under the pseudonym "Hannah Cox", the petition accuses the exam of being disproportionately difficult, claiming it has negatively affected candidates’ mental, financial and physical wellbeing.

In a response posted on the petition page, Cox doubled down on why the SQE needs reform, giving reasons including the cost of appeals, an alleged ban on water during the SQE1 exam - which runs for nearly six hours - and that questions "do not align with practice".

Background: the SQE debate

The SQE was introduced by the SRA in 2021, replacing the Legal Practice Course as the new route to qualification for solicitors in England and Wales. It was designed to create a more consistent, accessible pathway into the profession, but has faced controversy since launch.

Last year, the SRA’s assessment provider, Kaplan, apologised after wrongly failing nearly 200 candidates over a marking error.