Braverman tells Reform she has ‘come home’ as she confirms defection

Former home secretary Suella Braverman said she felt she had “come home” as she confirmed her defection to Reform UK.

She will represent her constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville as a Reform UK MP with immediate effect after resigning her Conservative Party membership of 30 years, she said.

It comes hot on the heels of fellow Conservative MPs Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell defecting and brings the number of sitting MPs in Nigel Farage’s party to eight.

Ms Braverman said Nigel Farage was the only man in UK politics who has been “courageously consistent”, as she took to the stage at a Reform UK event for veterans.

The Tories said her defection to Reform UK was always a matter of “when, not if”.

She denied plans to defect as recently as September, when she joined Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice at a press conference, saying she had been elected as a Tory.

But Mr Farage told reporters he had been talking to the former Cabinet minister for “just over a year” about the possibility of defecting and that the “professionalisation” of his party had probably been a draw.

“I have been talking to her for certainly, on and off, just over a year… but I think, you know, she was watching and waiting to see, you know what might happen,” he said.

“I think she’s reached the view that actually the centre-right of British politics needs to unify around Reform.”

Mr Farage had previously called Ms Braverman’s record on immigration and stopping the small boats “absolutely pathetic”.

He said on Monday that she had been “utterly useless, as they all were”.

“They all were utterly useless because they were stuck within the ECHR,” he said.

He said: “The government was a failure, but she’s now prepared to put her hands up and say, we got it wrong.

Ms Braverman told the crowd that her stance while a minister of calling for leaving the European Convention on Human Rights led to her being “sacked” and “punished” for “telling the truth”.

She called the Conservatives’ current promise to leave the ECHR “a lie”.

“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.

She told the crowd, “I feel like I’ve come home”, adding later: “There is only one man in British politics who has been courageously consistent for his country, and that man is Nigel Farage.”

She echoed ex-shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick, who described Britain as “broken” after he defected and said the Conservatives were unable to admit this.

Ms Braverman 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.

“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.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “It was always a matter of when, not if Suella would defect. The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.

“She says she feels that she has ‘come home’, which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024.

“There are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country.

“There are others who do it for their personal ambition. Suella stood for leader of the Conservatives in 2022 and came sixth, behind Kemi and Tom Tugendhat.

“In 2024, she could not even muster enough supporters to get on the ballot. She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage, who said last year he didn’t want her in Reform. They really are doing our ‘spring cleaning’!”

Mr Farage said he did not think former prime minister Liz Truss would be the next Tory to defect, but rejected that he had said she was unwelcome in his party.

Asked about a promised high-level Labour defection that he had originally billed for last week, he said it “takes time”.

He said Labour councillors had joined Reform but that it was “more difficult as you reach the higher echelons of the Labour Party”.

Labour and the Lib Dems said Mr Farage was bringing more “failed Tories” into his party.

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 judgment.”

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Farage has recruited yet another Conservative minister with selective amnesia – one who complains about broken Britain while conveniently forgetting they helped break it.”