Nigel Farage moved to rip the Right of British politics even further apart today as he unveiled former Conservative home secretary Suella Braverman as the latest defector to jump ship to Reform.
He lined up alongside Ms Braverman, 45, as she launched a broadside at her former party, saying it had been taken over by centrist ‘wets’, and complained of being sidelined by Kemi Badenoch.
She accused her former colleagues of playing at ‘performative conservativism’ in public but complained that she got no backing for her Right-wing agenda behind closed doors.
In a press conference this evening she said she had been ‘politically homeless‘ for several years before today’s announcement as the Conservatives became a ‘social democrat, Left-leaning party’.
Her move, which was long touted, came just a week after Robert Jenrick, her one-time Cabinet colleague, also abandoned the Tories to move to Reform, along with shadow minister Andrew Rosindell.
But as recently as last summer Reform was ruling out her joining, saying she was ‘not a team player’ and ‘just too disruptive’.
The Tories meanwhile, were forced to retract a statement issued following her defection when a spokesman suggested Ms Braverman was suffering from mental health problems and was ‘very unhappy’.
Both parties are facing increasingly vocal calls to bury the hatchet and form an electoral pact to get Labour out of office at the next election.
Speaking at a press conference this evening, Mr Farage said that unlike Mrs Badenoch and PM Keir Starmer he believes ‘Britain is broken’, adding: ‘I don’t think until you’re prepared to accept the depths to which we’ve sunk and are sinking fast – economically, socially, societally – unless you understand and accept those things, that it’s impossible to get into the mindset to be radical enough to change them.’
He lined up alongside Ms Braverman, 45, as she claimed the Tories had been taken over by centrist ‘wets’ who had left her with no choice but to defect after being sidelined by Kemi Badenoch
She accused her former party of playing at ‘performative conservativism’ in public but complained that she got no backing for her Right-wing agenda behind closed doors
The former Conservative home secretary – once fired by Liz Truss – was unveiled by Nigel Farage in London at a separate event this morning and claimed she was ‘calling time on Tory lies’.
After appearing alongside a beaming Mr Farage at the Veterans for Reform launch she tore into her former party over its refusal to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
She said the Tories would never pull the UK out of the ECHR, even if it won the next election.
Ms Braverman said Mr Farage was the only man in UK politics who has been ‘courageously consistent’ and claimed that her stance while a minister of calling for leaving the ECHR led to her being ‘sacked’ and ‘punished’ for ‘telling the truth’.
‘I’m calling time. I’m calling time on Tory betrayal. I’m calling time on Tory lies. I’m calling time on a party that keeps making promises with zero intention of keeping them,’ she said.
‘I feel like I’ve come home.’
Ms Braverman said she would not stand in a by-election but would represent her Havant and Waterlooville seat in Hampshire for her new party, bringing its number of sitting MPs to eight.
She has long been calling for her old party to do an electoral deal with Reform.
Last year she appeared at a press conference with Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice, fuelling defection speculation.
The former Conservative home secretary was unveiled by Nigel Farage at a Veterans for Reform event in London today
After appearing alongside a beaming Nigel Farage she tore into her former party over its refusal to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights
But her move today comes just months after her husband Rael Braverman left Reform, after it criticised her record in government. She confirmed tonight he has rejoined alongside her.
And it follows heavy criticism of her ability by Mr Farage.
Two years ago he said she had offered ‘nothing’ in the way of solutions to illegal migration when she was home secretary.
At the event today in central London, she said: ‘Britain is indeed broken. She is suffering. She is not well. Immigration is out of control. Our public services are on their knees. People don’t feel safe.
‘Our youngsters are leaving the country for better futures elsewhere. We can’t even defend ourselves, and our nation stands weak and humiliated on the world stage. So we stand at a crossroads.
‘We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender. Or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength.
‘I believe that a better Britain is possible. And because I believe that is possible, today I’m announcing that I resign the Conservative whip.
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Ms Braverman said Nigel Farage was the only man in UK politics who has been ‘courageously consistent’ and claimed that her stance while a minister of calling for leaving the ECHR led to her being ‘sacked’ and ‘punished’ for ‘telling the truth’
But her move today comes just months after her husband Rael Braverman left Reform, after it criticised her record in government
Mr Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, joined Reform ten days ago after being booted out by Ms Badenoch
‘I resigned the Conservative whip and my party membership, my party membership of 30 years. It’s gone. It’s over today.
‘And because I believe, with my heart and soul, that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.’
Mr Farage has set May 7 – the date of crucial local elections in which they hope to make significant gains – as a cut-off point for admitting current and former MPs, as well as for local councillors to defect.
Mr Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, joined Reform ten days ago after being booted out of the Tories by Kemi Badenoch.
He was followed by Mr Rosindell, a shadow foreign minister, who walked over the party’s Chagos Islands policy.
They add to the growing number of Conservative MPs, past and present, who have decided their chances are better with Reform.
Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: ‘Nigel Farage is stuffing his party full of the failed Tories responsible for the chaos and decline that held Britain back for 14 years.
‘Suella Braverman helped botch Brexit and got sacked as home secretary – her defection shows Farage is willing to accept the very worst of the Conservative Party and exposes his complete lack of judgement.‘
Former hardline home secretary who bridled at Tory moderation
Suella Braverman is the daughter of immigrants who came to Britain in search of a better life and thrived.
The mother of two, 45, is of Indian ancestry. Her parents Uma and Christie Fernandes have Goan and Mauritian links, but emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London.
Born in 1980, she was named Sue-Ellen by her mother, a fan of the US soap opera Dallas, which was huge at the time. But she was named Suella by primary school teachers who couldn’t deal with the hyphen, and it stuck.
Mrs Fernandes, a nurse by profession, ensured politics was a part of family life. A Tory councillor for 16 years, she also stood unsuccessfully for Parliament herself in 2001 and 2003.
Her daughter was once a possible Tory PM, but after making a name as the most Right-wing home secretary of the modern era she has walked out on the Tories to try her luck elsewhere.
While in office she vowed to end the expensive use of hotels to house migrants, lashed out at trans rights and ‘woke’ and mocked ‘Keir “take the knee” Starmer’. She also blasted Labour over its links to Just Stop Oil.
Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018
The mother of two, 43, is of Indian ancestry. Her parents Uma and Christie Fernandes have Goan and Mauritian links, but emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from East Africa before setting up base in Harrow, north-west London
The staunch Brexiteer served loyally in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet as attorney general, even winning a change in the law to allow her to take maternity leave and return – something no holder of a Cabinet role had previously done.
She was later appointed to replace Priti Patel as home secretary.
Her hardline approach to immigration had courted controversy – and complaints from other Tory MPs.
In 2023 she used a speech to a US thinktank to say the ‘misguided dogma of multiculturalism’ was posing an ‘existential threat’ to the West, and refugee rules drawn up after the Second World War needed reform.
She took on her critics – both in the Conservative Party and across politics, saying she was a hate figure because she tells the ‘blunt, unvarnished truth’.
Mrs Braverman herself was an early adopter of Tory values, serving as president of the Cambridge University Conservative Association while studying law.
After two failed parliamentary runs, she was elected as MP for Fareham in Hampshire in 2015 and rose through the party ranks quickly.
Outside politics, Mrs Braverman has two children with her husband Rael, whom she married at the House of Commons in 2018.
She has faced questions over her involvement with the controversial Buddhist Triratna sect.
The Triratna order, formerly one of Buddhism’s largest sects in the UK, has been the subject of historic sexual abuse allegations.
Mrs Braverman is believed to have attended meetings and retreats organised by the group, and was known as a ‘mitra’ – or friend – within the order.
