UK populist Reform attracts latest Conservative defector Braverman

Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman became the latest prominent Conservative to join Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK on Monday, using her unveiling at a rally to accuse her former party of lying to voters on immigration.

Farage’s party is ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour and Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives in polls before an election due in 2029 that could end the two-party system which has dominated Britain for more than a century.

Although for now, Reform remain a small grouping in the House of Commons, lower house of parliament, Braverman’s defection takes their numbers to eight lawmakers compared with more than 400 Labour lawmakers.

Braverman, who once ran as a leadership candidate for the Conservative Party, follows Robert Jenrick, who announced his move earlier in January.

“Britain is indeed broken,” a visibly emotional Braverman said at the rally, appearing alongside Farage.

“We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender, or we can fix our country,” she said, accusing the Conservatives of lying about their pledge to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

A former lawyer, Braverman, 45, was interior minister for a year in Rishi Sunak’s government but was sacked after breaking with the party’s stance on the European Convention on Human Rights. She argued Britain should leave the convention in order to gain better control of immigration.

Reform UK has said it will leave the convention if it wins power in the next national election.