"I've Come Home": British-Indian Ex-MP Defects To Anti-Immigration Reform UK

Suella Braverman, former UK home secretary in the previous Conservative Party led government, on Monday defected to the anti-immigration Reform UK saying she is “calling time” on the Tories for letting immigration get “out of control”.

The 45-year-old Goan heritage member of Parliament for Fareham and Waterlooville in southern England revealed that she had resigned her 30-year Tory membership to be welcomed by far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a public event in London.

Braverman marks the latest high-profile Tory MP to join hands with Farage after ex-ministers Robert Jenrick and Nadhim Zahawi, taking the total Conservative MP defections tally to eight.

"I feel like I've come home... I'm calling time on Tory betrayal. I'm calling time on Tory lies. I'm calling time on a party that keeps making promises with zero intention of keeping them,” said Braverman.

“Britain is indeed broken. She is suffering. She is not well, immigration is out of control, our public services are on their knees, people don't feel safe, our youngsters are leaving the country for better futures elsewhere.

“We can't even defend ourselves, and our nation stands weak and humiliated on the world stage. So we stand at a crossroads. We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength,” she said.

Farage said it was “about time” the former Tory minister defected, describing her as “somebody who's reached high office in the Cabinet”.

Braverman, in turn, praised her new party leader, claiming that there was “only one man in British politics who has been courageously consistent for his country, and that man is Nigel Farage”.

There was some controversy over the way the Conservatives responded to the news, with an initial statement blaming the decision on her “mental health”. Following backlash, the statement was amended to read: "It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

"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." As a prominent figure on the extreme right of the Conservative Party, Braverman had contested the party's leadership elections in the past and was incorporated into the top team by former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

She has a track record of courting controversy, including the distinction of two unceremonious removals as home secretary – the first time for breaching ministerial guidelines under Truss and the second for controversial media commentary under former prime minister Rishi Sunak.