The Conservatives are facing a backlash after claiming that Suella Braverman defected to Reform UK after “mental health” issues, as the former home secretary finally joined Nigel Farage’s party after months of denials.
Braverman, who was sacked from the cabinet by both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, became the third sitting Conservative MP to defect in little over a week. She immediately went on the attack against her former party.
At a press conference after her defection, Braverman said she had felt “politically homeless” for the last two years and that too many Tory promises to the country – including on Brexit and immigration – “lie in tatters”.
Her critics immediately pointed out that as Brexit minister, home secretary and attorney general under the Tories she had played a major role in the success, or otherwise, of those policy areas.
But a bitter row broke out after the Tories issued a statement after her defection saying that the party had done “all we could to look after Suella’s mental health” but she was “clearly very unhappy”.
The move sparked an angry response from across the political spectrum. The party later issued a corrected statement saying the original lines were “a draft version”, which had been “sent out in error”.
The earlier statement also said: “It was only a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect. 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.
“There are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country. There are others who do it for their personal ambition.”
The statement mentioning Braverman’s mental health provoked criticism from across the political spectrum. The former Conservative MP Nigel Evans said it was an “absolute disgrace”, while Mike Tapp, the immigration minister, described it as “gutter politics”.
Braverman herself addressed the statement later, saying that Badenoch had previously accused her of having a “breakdown”, adding”: “It is a bit pathetic. As I said, it says more about them than it does me.
“It is, I’m afraid, just more sorry signs of a bitter and desperate party that seems to be in free fall.”
Asked by the Guardian when she had last spoken to Badenoch, Braverman said it had been during the latter’s leadership campaign. She claimed Badenoch had apologised to her for making a claim about her having a breakdown and asked her to vote for her.
Farage told reporters after Braverman’s defection that they had been speaking for at least a year. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian
Braverman, who has been an MP since 2015 and served as home secretary under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, was unveiled before a Reform rally attended by veterans in central London. Appearing before Farage later at Reform HQ, she accused the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, of forcing her out as part of a “witch-hunt against rightwingers”.
“If the party you joined no longer reflects the values and principles that it once did, you should question your allegiance,” she said. “If the party keeps breaking its promises, you should question your loyalty.”
Farage, who presented Braverman in front of a rally of veterans, told reporters after Braverman’s defection that they had been speaking for at least a year. He said that Braverman’s husband, Rael, who had joined Reform UK some time ago but then quit after criticisim of his wife from the party, had also played a role in the defection. Braverman said her husband had “rejoined”.
Farage said her defection brought much needed experience to Reform UK. There are now more members of Liz Truss’s cabinet are now in his top team than in Kemi Badenoch’s.
Amid speculation that key allies and supporters of Braverman could follow her, David Frost, the Conservative peer and former Cabinet Office minister, posted a picture of him campaigning with her in 2024 and wrote: “We’ve always seen things the same way.”
But others on the right of the Tory Party spoke out against Braverman’s defection, which had long been expected. Mark Francois, who was name-checked by her during her appearance at Reform UK, said he was “deeply disappointed” at the departure of a fellow self-styled “spartan” who held hardline positions on Brexit.
Farage indicated he was eager to take more Tories, but drew the line at named Conservative MPs including Jeremy Hunt and rightwinger Priti Patel.
“Look, I’m not welcoming people like Priti Patel, who says she did nothing wrong despite opening the doors to the biggest levels of immigration Britain ever saw. I’m not welcoming Boris Johnson. I’m not recognising those who were part of the problem and still refuse to accept it,” he told GB News.
At the same time, Farage came under pressure in other interviews to explain why a planned unveiling of a Labour defector last week did not materialise and claimed the party was in discussions with Labour figures.
Suella Braverman joins fellow Tory defector Robert Jenrick. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
Echoing talking points raised by Robert Jenrick when he defected earlier this month, Braverman had told the rally earlier in the day that Britain was broken, before using the press conference with Farage later in the day to list what she saw as failings in a range of areas such as the treatment of veterans, immigration and the allowance under a Tory government of children to socially transition in schools.
Such was the secrecy surrounding Braverman’s defection that Reform staff at the event were taken by surprise at the event earlier in the day.
The Fareham and Waterlooville MP follows Jenrick, who was shadow justice secretary and defected on 15 January, and Andrew Rosindell, who made the move a few days later. Her move means Reform now has eight MPs.
The defection is likely to worry some in Reform, which in a short space of time has taken on board three former Tories who once had leadership ambitions in their old party. Braverman was sacked as home secretary by Truss and Sunak, the first time for sending official documents from a personal email to another Tory MP, and the second after being accused of fuelling far-right violence with her rhetoric.
Reform figures have briefed in the past that neither Braverman nor Truss would be welcome in the party.
Braverman told the event she would be setting out her reasons for leaving the Tories later in the day, as she used her speech to lambast previous Conservative governments. She revisited her sacking by Sunak, saying she had gone to him when she was home secretary to express her concerns about the impact of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) on Britain’s ability to enforce immigration policies.
“First he ignored me and then he sacked me,” she said.
Farage is coming under growing pressure over claims that Reform is turning into another Conservative party, and he was reluctant to be drawn on whether Truss could be next to join his party.
Reform’s press team told the Guardian last week that Truss would never join the party. Asked again on Monday about closing the door to her entry, Farage replied: “I didn’t say that. I said it was unlikely.”
Asked about his previous description about Braverman as “absolutely pathetic” on immigration, he responded: “She was utterly useless, as they all were. They all were utterly useless because they were stuck within the ECHR. So she found herself in this bizarre position.”
Labour seized on the defection. The party’s 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.”
