Former home secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK...

The ex-Conservative who served as home secretary under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak becomes the latest former senior Tory to join Nigel Farage's party



Suella Braverman has become the latest prominent Conservative politician to jump ship and join Reform UK.

The former home secretary has been unveiled by Nigel Farage as another high-profile catch, at an event launching Veterans for Reform.

Ms Braverman, who served in government under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak, announced that she had resigned the Conservative whip to huge cheers from the veterans gathered for the event.

"I feel like I've come home," she said. "Because I believe that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK."

Ms Braverman who served in the Home Office at the same time as Robert Jenrick - who defected to the party on 15 January - is now the party's eighth MP.

Explaining her decision, Ms Braverman said: "Loyalty demands honesty and honesty compels me to say this: today 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. I believe that a better Britain is possible."

She pointed to her calls to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) while in government, and accused the Tories of having "utterly failed to do the right thing for the British people".

She said her former party had "great speeches, good slogans... but when the cameras are off, when the doors are shut, and when they're sat behind that table making difficult decisions for the country, they fold".

She added: "When push comes to shove, they go AWOL. No courage, no backbone, no resolve."

Ms Braverman also hit out at the current Tory party, saying its commitment to leave the ECHR is a lie.

She added: "I'm calling time on Tory lies. I'm calling time on a party that keeps making promises with zero intention of keeping them."

Championing Reform, Ms Braverman said: "There is only one man in British politics who has been courageously consistent for his country, and that man is Nigel Farage.

"He's not backed down in the face of vicious onslaughts, vicious vitriol, and backlash. Nigel Farage is right and the British people are backing him."

Ms Braverman concluded her speech by saying it is "the honour of my life" to defect to Reform.

Braverman condemns Badenoch over mental health attack

Suella Braverman has attacked Kemi Badenoch over the Tories’ claim that she had “mental health” issues.

The Conservatives were forced to withdraw a statement saying the former home secretary, who defected to Reform UK on Monday morning, had been “very unhappy” and that the party had done all it could to “look after” her mental health.

Mrs Braverman told a press conference that the Tory leader had previously accused her of having had a “nervous breakdown” and said she had now repeated the charge.

Reform’s newest MP added: “Those attacks say more about them than they do about me.”

She added: “It is a bit pathetic … I’m not really going to dignify it. It is, I’m afraid, just more sorry signs of a bitter and desperate party that’s in free fall.”

Mrs Braverman claimed Mrs Badenoch said she “was having a nervous breakdown” in 2024 after the former home secretary blamed the Tories’ general election loss on failings on immigration and Brexit.

The Tory statement published on Monday afternoon said: “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.”

It is understood that Mrs Badenoch did not approve the statement, which was sent out by the party’s central office.

The party was forced to withdraw the comment following a backlash from MPs and peers from across the political spectrum, who described the statement as “appalling” and “nasty”.

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, criticised the Tory response, saying: “Their reaction to Suella’s defection has been pretty abusive.

“We will not lower ourselves to their level.”

A Reform UK source said: “It’s gutter politics, a sign of what the Conservative Party has become.”

Conservatives also lined up to condemn the comment, with Lord Jackson, a Tory peer, writing on X: “What a nasty and unpleasant statement from the Conservatives. That’s another few thousand votes they’ve lost.”

Nigel Evans, a former Tory MP who was previously deputy speaker of the party, said the Conservatives should “withdraw that statement immediately, I think it’s appalling … it’s better to say nothing than to say something like that.”

Labour MPs were also critical, with Mike Tapp, the migration minister, saying: “I have no sympathy for Suella Braverman when it comes to politics and what she did to our immigration system.

“But the Tories attacking her mental health is below the standards we expect.”

Josh Fenton-Glynn, a Labour MP, added: “This statement is horrible. Attacking someone on mental health is wrong.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/26/farage-reform-uk-press-conference/