LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - British lawmaker Suella Braverman, a former interior minister, became the latest prominent Conservative to join Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK on Monday, and she accused her former party of lying to voters over immigration.
Opinion polls put Reform UK ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party and Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives, the two parties that have dominated British politics for over a century, though a national election is not due until 2029.
For now, the anti-immigration Reform UK Party remains a small grouping in the House of Commons, the lower chamber, with Braverman's defection taking their tally to eight. That compares to more than 400 Labour lawmakers in the 650-seat chamber.
BRAVERMAN JUMPS SHIP AFTER JENRICK
Braverman, who once ran as a leadership candidate for the Conservative Party, follows Robert Jenrick, who announced his move earlier this month.
"Britain is indeed broken," a visibly emotional Braverman said at a Reform UK 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.
Reform UK, and now the Conservatives too, say that Britain will be able to better control immigration if it withdraws from the ECHR as that will limit the grounds on which those facing deportation can appeal their removal.
The Labour government wants to stay in the ECHR but to reform how it is applied in certain asylum cases.
Responding to Braverman's defection, a Conservative Party spokesperson said she was more interested in personal ambition than improving the country.
"She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage, who said last year he didn’t want her in Reform. They really are doing our 'spring cleaning'," the spokesperson added.
A former lawyer, Braverman, 45, was interior minister for a year in Rishi Sunak's government in 2022-2023 but was sacked after she criticised police handling of protests.
That stint as a minister came shortly after she resigned from the same position in Liz Truss' short-lived government for sending official documents from a personal email address.
(Reporting by Sarah Young, additional reporting by Muvija M, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Gareth Jones)
