The former home secretary, Suella Braverman, has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, telling a press conference: “I feel like I’ve come home.”
Mrs. Braverman becomes the latest major name on the Conservative Right to join Farage’s party, less than a fortnight after Robert Jenrick, the former shadow justice secretary, made the move.
The total number of MPs sitting on Reform’s camp is now up to eight, including four who defected from the Tories since the General Election.
Announcing her defection at a Reform press conference, Braverman said: “I feel like I’ve come home.”
According to The Telegraph, she added: “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.”
Attacking her former colleagues, Mrs Braverman said: “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.
“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,” she added.
“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.”
Mrs Braverman, who resigned her Conservative Party membership after 30 years, said she would be sitting as a Reform MP with immediate effect, suggesting she would not trigger a by-election to seek a fresh mandate from her constituents.
Mr Jenrick welcomed her to the party on social media shortly after the announcement, saying: “Great to be on the same team again. Let’s take our country back.”
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