Most of those at Monday’s event had to remind themselves that Braverman hadn’t defected long ago
T
hat noise? The sound of the barrel getting scraped. Only last summer, Reform insiders were briefing the rightwing media that the party would never welcome Suella Braverman into its ranks. Too much baggage. Too out of control. Reform wasn’t a convalescent home for disgraced and failed Tory MPs. Surely not? Heaven forbid.
So it was only a matter of time before the MP forced to resign from Liz Truss’s cabinet as home secretary for breaking the ministerial code – imagine the shame of being sacked by Liz – and then fired by Rishi Sunak for criticising Scotland Yard’s policing of protests was welcomed by Nigel Farage. Let’s face it: if Kemi Badenoch weren’t already leader of the Tory party, she’d almost certainly be next in line to defect.
“I feel like I’ve come home,” said Suella. And in a sense she had. There are now more members of the Truss cabinet in Reform than there are in Kemi’s shadow team. This after Nige had hijacked what had been intended as a rally for military veterans to welcome her on stage. Nige just can’t help himself. There again, he might have welcomed the distraction. Farage is on dodgy ground trying to champion veterans’ causes after his close mate Donald Trump personally insulted British service personnel last week. Someone might have got round to asking why the Reform leader so admires the US president.
