Suella Braverman has said she will not defect to Reform UK unless she is “driven out” of the Conservative Party.
In her first interview since abandoning her bid to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader, the former home secretary warned that the Tories have “no chance of winning the next general election” as long as Nigel Farage’s outfit “is a viable alternative”.
Asked about speculation that she might join Reform UK, Ms Braverman told GB News: “I’m not going to defect to Reform, no.
“I hope I’m not driven out to Reform by my colleagues.”
Young people are voting more for Reform than they are for the Conservatives
Suella Braverman
Describing Tory-to-Reform defector Lee Anderson as a “good friend,” she continued: “We should not be hounding out Conservatives, right-wingers, Eurosceptics, people who want to stand up for our flag and our faith as if they are somehow swivel-eyed loons.
“Lee Anderson should be a Conservative MP.”
Ms Braverman also warned her party against “complacency” over the threat from Reform.
“I am absolutely confident that Reform can do better,” she said.
“Young people are voting more for Reform than they are for the Conservatives.”
“These facts alone should seriously alarm any Conservative leader and all Conservative MPs.
“I’m just concerned that there’s still a level of complacency.”
The Fareham and Waterlooville MP declined to say whether the two parties should merge, but added: “Reform and the Conservatives cannot co-exist in the way that they are.
“We will have no chance of winning the next general election as long as Reform is a viable alternative.”
Bowing out of the Tory leadership race last week, Ms Braverman said there was “still no consensus” on what led the party to its worst-ever general election defeat and that she had been “vilified” by colleagues for setting out her view.
She told GB News she had given up all ambition to take the party’s reins, saying: “That will be it for me.”
Six candidates are battling it out to replace Mr Sunak, with the winner named on November 2.
They are shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch – the bookmakers’ favourite, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat, shadow home secretary James Cleverly and former home secretary Dame Priti Patel.
As well as the challenge of responding to the threat from Reform UK on the right, the party must win back former heartlands in southern England which shifted to the Liberal Democrats.
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