Reform U.K., the rising right-wing populist political party threatening to eclipse the Conservatives in British politics, has just scored its biggest defection yet.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman appeared alongside Reform leader Nigel Farage at a Veterans for Reform rally in London on Monday, where she condemned her former party, the Conservatives, as having “utterly failed to do the right thing for the British people.”
“Because I believe with my heart and soul that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform U.K., and I will sit as the member of parliament for Fareham and Waterlooville, representing this great party, Reform U.K., with immediate effect,” Braverman told the audience.
“Britain is indeed broken,” she told supporters. “We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender, or we can fix our country.”
Braverman has long been perceived as further right-wing than the rest of the Conservative Party, particularly on issues such as immigration. She characterized her decision to leave the party, among the oldest political parties in the world, as a painful but necessary action to better serve the country.
Farage welcomed her as the latest and most high-profile Conservative to join his burgeoning movement, following on the heels of other recent turncoats, such as Andrew Rosindell and Robert Jenrick.
“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 told the Financial Times after stepping offstage at the event.
The Conservatives, currently led by Kemi Badenoch, slammed Braverman following her defection, characterizing her as an inevitable turncoat and questioning her mental faculties.
“It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect,” the party said in a statement. “The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.”
That bellicose message was later deleted and replaced with a statement lacking the comments about “mental health,” with the Conservatives claiming those comments had been part of a “draft” that was “sent out in error.”
Braverman brushed off the comments as “pathetic” while Farage called it “the last thrashings of a dying political animal.”
British parliamentary elections are not due to take place until 2029, but that has not stopped Reform and Conservatives from ginning up support early as the Labour government continues to hemorrhage support under Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Reform is currently polling far ahead of its competition with 29% support compared to the Conservatives’ 18%. Labor also sits at approximately 18% with the Greens trailing at 14% and the Lib Dems coming just behind at 13%.
Some fears exist among the British right that Reform’s success could still be squashed by an alliance of Labour, the Green Party, the Lib Dems, and a confederation of minor parties if a pact is not struck with the Conservatives, assuring a unified right-wing bloc.
Braverman shot down the idea of allying with her former party in an interview with the Telegraph.
“No pact,” she said. “We don’t need them. We’re going to win the next election and save this country. I don’t trust the Conservatives. They’ve let down too many people, too many times.”
She went even further in her condemnation, adding: “I don’t think the Conservative Party should be anywhere near power again in my lifetime.”
Farage has instituted a May 7 deadline for prospective Conservative defectors to officially switch to Reform, warning that his party will not be open to last-minute opportunists seeking to court his growing support base closer to election time.
