Braverman refuses to rule out Reform defection in wake of local elections
Suella Braverman has refused to rule out defecting to Reform UK in the wake of the local elections.
At a talk this week, the former home secretary hinted that she could leave the Conservatives and join Nigel Farage's party in the future.
Reform won control of 10 county councils and topped the popular vote last Thursday, while Kemi Badenoch's Tories lost control of every council they were defending.
Mrs Braverman previously refused to rule out defecting at the start of the year but her remarks will now take on greater significance after Reform's success at the ballot box.
During an online question-and-answer session with the Popular Conservatism pressure group, Mrs Braverman was asked 'would you rule out joining Reform and if not, why not, [and] if you wouldn't join, why not?'
She avoided the chance to dispute defection, replying: 'Well, I'm a member of the Conservative Party, I was elected by the great people of Fareham and Waterlooville as a Conservative Member of Parliament.
'And I'm working as a Conservative and I've been a member of the party, I think I'm losing count of the decades now actually. I was one of those geeks who joined in her teenage years, I think I was 14 or 15, to help my mum.
'I was encouraged by my mum. She was a Conservative councillor at the time in Brent so really I joined up to deliver leaflets for her to be honest. So really this is many decades and it's in my family.'
The Tory MP went on to dismiss claims that Reform could suffer a similarly rapid demise to the SDP in the 1980s as 'unfounded'.
Mrs Braverman said: 'I just can't see that happening given the strength of support.
'I think the combination of speaking to people's frustration and sense of betrayal, their reforms and their policies on think like the ECHR and net zero and woke and meritocracy and patriotism, and the fact that they are gaining support not just in Conservative heartlands, but in Labour heartlands – I think it's a very strong set of circumstances for Reform.
'And we've got to face the fact that Reform is here to stay. That's my very strong view.'
'Significant turning point'
Mrs Braverman has repeatedly called for the Tories to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, a commitment that Mrs Badenoch to date refuses to match.
Earlier in the discussion, Mrs Braverman described Reform's local election success as a 'significant turning point'.
She added: 'They've proved they can go beyond the 20 per cent mark in the polls, they can win by-elections, they can take control of whole local authorities and they are commanding a huge amount of support within the electorate.
'They have achieved a huge amount and I can pretty much understand why people are flocking to Reform in high numbers.'
High-profile defections from the Tories to Reform have included Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, and Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative minister who was elected the Reform mayor for Greater Lincolnshire last week.
Reform's polling success
A YouGov poll earlier this week showed Reform has hit a new polling high of 29 per cent, with Labour on 22 per cent and the Tories on 17 per cent.
It is the Tories' lowest poll rating with YouGov since June 2019, the month before Theresa May departed Downing Street in the wake of her party's European election drubbing.
The local elections and a continued collapse in the opinion polls have added to pressure on Mrs Badenoch, who has largely avoided setting out policy positions in her first six months in charge.
In an interview with The Telegraph in January, Mrs Braverman refused to rule out defecting and declined to confirm she would still be a Tory MP by the end of the parliament.
Asked whether she had any further comment, Mrs Braverman told The Telegraph: 'Nothing more to add!'
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