Braverman 'comes home' with defection to Reform

Controversial former home secretary Suella Braverman has become the latest ex-Tory right-winger to defect to Nigel Farage's Reform.

- DAVID MADDOX ATHENA STAVROU

After months of speculation, Ms Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary by Rishi Sunak and forced to resign from the same role by Liz Truss, joined her ally Robert Jenrick in switching parties.

She was unveiled yesterday at a Reform rally for veterans in London as the party's eighth sitting MP, having been a rare visitor to parliament in the last few months.

But soon after the defection, an initial response issued by the Conservative Party included the sentence: “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.”

Speaking at a press conference, Ms Braverman said: “It is a bit pathetic. As I said, it says more about them than it does me. I'm not really going to dignify it. It is, I'm afraid, just more sorry signs of a bitter and desperate party that seems to be in free fall.”

A Reform UK spokesperson described the statement as “gutter politics”, as the reference was decried across the political spectrum and by mental health charities, and forced her former party into a humiliating retraction.

The statement came after a bitter month for the Tories with Mr Jenrick, Ms Braverman and Romford MP Andrew Rosindell all defecting. Another nine Tory MPs are on a defection watchlist.

Labour said the defection proved Mr Farage is “stuffing his party full of the failed Tories”, while the Tories said the move to Reform UK was always a matter of “when, not if”.

Ms Braverman, who once ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party and was a major supporter of Brexit, said: “Today I am announcing that I am resigning the Conservative whip and my party membership of 30 years. And because I believe with my heart and soul that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.”