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Suella Braverman, the former Conservative home secretary, has defected to Reform UK, becoming the latest high-profile Tory to jump to Nigel Farage’s insurgent populist party.
“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,” Braverman told a Reform UK rally for military veterans after being introduced by Farage.
After a standing ovation, the MP for Fareham and Waterlooville added: “I resign 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.”
The Conservative Party responded with a personal attack on Braverman, with a spokesman saying: “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.”
They added: “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.”
Braverman’s move follows the defection of Robert Jenrick two weeks ago, who quit as shadow justice secretary to join Reform.
She becomes Reform UK’s eighth MP after Andrew Rosindell, who was shadow minister for foreign affairs, announced he was defecting from the Conservatives this month.
“That was another big moment,” Farage told the FT minutes after Braverman’s defection was announced.
“She’s obviously thought long and hard about it, but like many Tory MPs she’s come to the conclusion that the Conservatives are disintegrating.”
Farage said he had been talking to Braverman “on and off” for just over a year and claimed she was the most popular Tory MP among members of the Conservatives.
He sidestepped reports that he had previously criticised her, saying that if he had been a Conservative MP he would have wanted her to become leader of the party.
“They all were utterly useless because they were stuck within the ECHR,” Farage said, referring to the European Convention on Human Rights that he has long claimed makes tackling illegal migration more challenging.
“She was the first senior Conservative, elected Conservative, to say, look, the ECHR is proving a barrier, which she saw, you know, in her time in cabinet.”
He added that Braverman was “now prepared to put her hands up and say we got it wrong, and that’s the first criteria”.
Farage has set a deadline of May 7 — the date of key elections across England, Wales and Scotland — for other Conservative MPs who wish to defect as his party leads in the polls.
Last week Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, wrote to Tory MPs warning that she will not “tolerate” any more “psychodrama and intrigue” as she attempted to prevent any more defections.
Reform is still vulnerable to criticism that it is collecting disaffected Conservatives when much of its appeal to voters has been that it is a break with the past.
Farage was asked on Monday whether former prime minister Liz Truss could join Reform, given his party now has more members of her cabinet in their ranks than Badenoch has in her shadow cabinet.
Farage suggested Truss joining was not on the cards but emphasised that he had not said she was not welcome.
“I didn’t say that. I said it was unlikely,” Farage said.