{"id":305199,"date":"2026-01-26T23:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T23:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/305199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T23:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T23:43:08","slug":"suella-bravermans-defection-is-a-calculated-risk-for-nigel-farage-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/305199\/","title":{"rendered":"Suella Braverman\u2019s defection is a calculated risk for Nigel Farage \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK<\/a> leader Nigel Farage<\/a> teased the crowd of party loyalists who showed up to its veterans\u2019 event at an old guildhall in central London on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about time, isn\u2019t it?\u201d he said, trying to ramp up the mystery. But by the time he was halfway through his opening speech, many had already guessed what was happening. Farage announced the latest senior Tory<\/a> defector, former home secretary Suella Braverman<\/a>. She walked onstage to a standing ovation and cheers.<\/p>\n

Reform has held events to unveil so many Tory defections recently, the announcements run to a standard playbook. A party event is organised, usually for late on a Monday morning, and ostensibly for some other reason. Farage then does a big reveal.<\/p>\n

Tory former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi<\/a> joined on Monday, January 12th. Danny Kruger<\/a> joined on Monday, September 15th. Former Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick<\/a> joined on a Thursday, but his hand was forced.<\/p>\n

Farage\u2019s upstart party, which has promised its voters a break from the old order, has announced the defection of 20 former Tory MPs over the past 18 months, complicating its appeal to former Labour voters in working-class districts.<\/p>\n

\"ReformReform UK MP Robert Jenrick, a recent Tory defector, looks on as Suella Braverman speaks to the media. Photograph: Leon Neal\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Farage seems keen to take the risk. This suggests his primary aim in this May\u2019s local elections in England \u2013 and devolved votes in Wales and Scotland \u2013 may be to finally kill off the Tories as a national political force, rather than to destroy Labour<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most of the 20 defectors were no longer parliamentarians. But four sitting Tory MPs have joined since the July 2024 election \u2013 Braverman, Kruger, Jenrick and backbencher Andrew Rosindell, who joined last week.<\/p>\n

Reform now has eight MPs. It won five in the general election and another in a byelection last year. Two of the 2024 group have left.<\/p>\n

Braverman\u2019s defection may be one of the least surprising Tory-to-Reform moves, but it is still among the most intriguing. For Farage, it is also one of the riskiest. Braverman is a box office figure in Westminster politics but she is unpredictable.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Suella Braverman defects to Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform and slams Tory \u2018lies\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Her husband, Rael Braverman, left the Conservatives for Reform in December 2024. He quit in July 2025, however, after senior Reform strategist Zia Yusuf launched a public attack on his wife and Jenrick.<\/p>\n

Now she has gone the other way, slamming the Conservative door on the way out. She accused the Tories of \u201clies\u201d over migration and told Reform that she finally felt \u201cat home\u201d. Her old party responded with a statement questioning her mental health, which it withdrew two hours later after criticism.<\/p>\n

When Jenrick left, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch projected strength by pre-emptively sacking him. The now-withdrawn mental health statement suggests her handling of Braverman\u2019s defection was less adroit.<\/p>\n

Still, the exit of Jenrick and Braverman are seen not as signals of Badenoch\u2019s weakness as Tory leader, but more as signs of her growing strength. Jenrick and Braverman both saw themselves as alternative Tory leaders. Badenoch\u2019s recent improved performance led both to conclude their chance had gone.<\/p>\n

As for Braverman, she was notorious as a Tory loose cannon. Boris Johnson made her attorney general \u2013 she thanked him by helping to bring him down. Liz Truss made her home secretary, but later sacked her for using personal email for work. Rishi Sunak reappointed her six days after, but she was later sacked again for undermining him. Loyalty to her leader is not Braverman\u2019s political strong suit.<\/p>\n

A Reform source told the Daily Mail last July they didn\u2019t want her because \u201cher record shows she is just too disruptive\u201d. Now she is Farage\u2019s latest new ex-Tory toy.<\/p>\n

His list of former Tories now includes punchy characters such as Jenrick, Braverman, former culture secretary Nadine Dorries and former Tory vice-chairman Lee Anderson. Perhaps the most absorbing question in British politics is how the Reform UK leader plans to control such notorious egos, not to mention his own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK leader Nigel Farage teased the crowd of party loyalists who showed up to its veterans\u2019 event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,18027,13,14,6,20568,11,12,15,16,149979,5,20567,20566,149863,7,8,20565,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-305199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-conservative-and-unionist-party","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-labour-party-uk","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-nadhim-zahawi","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-nigel-farage","22":"tag-reform-uk","23":"tag-suella-braverman","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-uk-politics","27":"tag-world","28":"tag-world-news","29":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115964058220096023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}