Suella Braverman becomes yet another ex-Tory cabinet minister to join Reform
Nigel Farage has welcomed his fourth high-profile Conservative defection to Reform in two weeks – and it’s yet another former member of Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
Suella Braverman took to the stage at one of the party’s press conferences this afternoon to reveal herself as the new recruit.
She previously served as Home Secretary under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, and spent two years as Johnson’s Attorney General.
Farage has now brought three ex-Tory cabinet ministers into his party in the past fortnight, with former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick joining previously.
Braverman told a crowd in central London: ‘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.
‘I resigned the Conservative whip and my party membership, my party membership of 30 years. It’s gone. It’s over today.
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‘And because I believe, with my heart and soul, that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.’
Speculation that Braverman could defect has been rampant for a while, owing to the particularly right-wing views that made her a controversial home secretary.
Her husband Rael Braverman joined Reform in December 2024, but quit seven months later after the party publicly criticised his wife over the Afghan data leak.
At the time, the Daily Mail reported Suella Braverman would not be welcomed into Reform, with a source describing her as ‘just too disruptive’.
But last November, she fuelled further speculation by heaping praise on Nigel Farage in a podcast appearance.
She said: ‘On immigration, he has been right about immigration and he has been consistent. On the ECHR, he has been the first one to call for withdrawal from the ECHR. He was the first mainstream politician to call for it.
‘Through his sheer determination, resilience and consistency he has shifted the Overton window, he has shifted British politics.’
How many Tories have defected to Reform and who are they?
Suella Braverman joins 22 other current and former MPs who have left the Tories and gone to Reform. They are:
- Andrew Rosindell
- Robert Jenrick
- Nadhim Zahawi
- Ben Bradley
- Chris Green
- Lia Nici
- Jonathan Gullis
- Sarah Atherton
- Maria Caulfield
- Danny Kruger
- Nadine Dorries
- Adam Holloway
- Sir Jake Berry
- David Jones
- Anne Marie Morris
- Ross Thomson
- Alan Amos
- Marco Longhi
- Aidan Burley
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Lucy Allan
- Lee Anderson
Writing in the Telegraph earlier this month, Farage said his party was ‘not a rescue charity for every panicky Tory MP’.
He wrote: ‘Any Conservative MP who still clings to the hope that their party can recover and waits until May 8 to try to leave the sinking ship does not understand how rapidly things are changing out in the country.
‘Trying to use Reform as a lifeboat to save their own political skins will not wash. We have no interest in rescuing political failures.’
MPs from no other party have defected to Reform, though Lee Anderson was a Labour councillor for several years before switching to the Conservatives.
Farage previously said he was preparing to announce the defection of a prominent Labour figure this month, but a planned press conference was cancelled in the wake of Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland.
Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: ‘Nigel Farage is stuffing his party full of the failed Tories responsible for the chaos and decline that held Britain back for 14 years.
‘Suella Braverman helped botch Brexit and got sacked as Home Secretary – her defection shows Farage is willing to accept the very worst of the Conservative Party and exposes his complete lack of judgement.’
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