Former UK home secretary Suella Braverman has become the latest Tory MP to defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Ms Braverman, who had been widely expected to follow her former Tory colleague Robert Jenrick into the upstart populist right wing party, told a gathering of Reform activists in central London on Monday that “Britain is broken and suffering”.
The anti-immigration hardliner launched a blistering attack on her former party over its “failures” on issues such as asylum seekers and legal migration.
“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,” said Ms Braverman, as she was unveiled at a rally for former military veterans who support Reform.
Her defection brings the ranks of Reform MPs up to eight, including four former Tories who have crossed over since the last general election in 2024.
Mr Jenrick, another immigration hardliner, defected to Reform barely two weeks ago.
[ Where does defection of ‘insanely ambitious’ Robert Jenrick leave the Tories?Opens in new window ]
Ms Braverman, however, is arguably the most senior former Tory to defect, having served as home secretary under prime ministers Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Mr Jenrick never served in cabinet.
Mr Farage’s party leads in all national opinion polls in Britain, averaging about 34 per cent in most surveys, a double-digit lead over its rivals in the Tories and Labour.
The defections in recent weeks of several high-profile Tories, however, have raised concerns among some Reform backers that the party may now struggle to appeal to the disgruntled Labour supporters it is targeting in working-class districts across Britain.