LONDON – Suella Braverman, a former UK Home Secretary known for her strong stance against immigration, has announced her departure from the Conservative Party to join the hard-right faction, Reform UK. This move marks another significant shift within the political landscape as Braverman aligns herself with the party led by Nigel Farage.

Having been dismissed from her role as interior minister in 2023 due to frequent policy disagreements, Braverman declared her decision to leave the Conservatives after three decades of membership. She plans to continue representing her constituency in southern England as a Reform UK member of Parliament.

“We face a choice: to continue on a path of managed decline leading to weakness and surrender, or to restore our country, reclaim our authority, and rediscover our strength,” Braverman stated. “I am convinced that a better Britain is within reach.”

Braverman is the latest prominent figure from the Conservative Party to gravitate towards Farage’s narrative, which suggests that the UK is in disarray and overwhelmed by immigration. Her defection follows that of Robert Jenrick, bolstering Reform UK’s presence to eight seats in the 650-member House of Commons.

Despite these changes, the Conservative Party remains the official opposition with 116 seats, standing against Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

Although Reform UK holds only a small number of parliamentary seats, it currently surpasses both the ruling Labour Party and the Conservatives in opinion polls. This trend is particularly significant as the country approaches crucial local elections in May, including votes for the devolved parliaments in Scotland and Wales.

Braverman was sacked by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in November 2023 after she called migration a “hurricane” heading for Britain, said homelessness was a “lifestyle choice” and accused police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters that she called “hate marchers.”

Critics blamed her rhetoric for inflaming tensions when far-right protesters scuffled with police and tried to confront a pro-Palestinian march by hundreds of thousands in London.

The 45-year-old lawyer who has criticized liberal social values and what she has called the “tofu-eating wokerati,” had declined to enter the contest for leadership of the once-dominant center-right Conservative Party after it was trounced by the center-left Labour Party in the July 2024 election.

She had urged the party after the loss to reach out to welcome Farage into Conservative ranks. Writing in the Daily Telegraph at the time, she said Conservative colleagues were unwilling to listen to her, and branded her “mad, bad and dangerous.”

Now Farage has welcomed her into Reform’s growing party.