Suella Braverman and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (Image: GETTY)
Reform UK poses a "big threat” to the Conservative Party, former Home Secretary minister Suella Braverman has said.
And the Tory MP’s claim that there was “not enough space in British politics for two conservative parties was added extra significance given her Rael yesterday defected to Reform UK. Ms Braverman has since insisted she has no plans to follow suit - but his decision will do little to dampen ongoing speculation.
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The 44-year-old MP for Fareham and Waterlooville was speaking to Dr Frank Millard during an event organised by the Bruges Group and shared on their website yesterday.
Ms Braverman, who also served as Home Secretary, was knocked out in the early stages of the Tory contest which resulted in Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister, albeit briefly, in 1922.
Asked about the current state of her party, now led by Kemi Badenoch, she said: "She's been very honest about diagnosing for the problems and things that went wrong with the previous Conservative administration.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK scoffs at suggestion of pact with ‘broken’ Tories
Suella Braverman had warm words of praise for new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (Image: Getty)
"I think that demonstrates a very valuable level of insight that we need we now need to get behind the new team, the new leader and make sure that the party addresses what I think is an existential crisis within the Conservative Party right now.”
She warned: "We have no inalienable right to exist and the big threat to us is posed by Reform and, the Reform party has caused us a huge amount of pain, let's face it.”
More than one hundred Tory MPs defeated at the last election did so “effectively because of Reform”, Ms Braverman pointed out
She continued: "We lost 4 million votes to Reform. So, we can't just assume that Labour's problems will mean an automatic reinstatement of the Conservative Party.
Rael Braverman has quit the Tories for Reform UK (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
"We need to fight to regain trust, we need to actually offer a compelling and inspiring vision of what a conservative Britain can look like, and we need to regain the trust of the four million we abandoned in anger to Reform.
"There's not enough space in British politics for two conservative parties and unless until we tackle head on the challenge posed by Reform, we have no chance of getting into government.”
Mr Millard, who was speaking on November 12, prior to Nigel Farage’s party hitting the 100,000-member milestone, also suggested Ms Badenoch’s election might leave Reform a busted flush.
Disagreeing, Ms Braverman stressed: "I think that that MPs that believe that are displaying a worrying level of complacency.
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"Reform is on the up, they are increasing the number of their members, rapidly, it's establishing strongholds in Wales in particular. It has a lot of support in the Southwest as well, in the north.
"And it's now actually adopted adapted its strategy to target Labour seats. I think in about 100 Labour seats, they came second. That should be an alarm be for the Conservative party, in mainly those kind of Red Wall seats.
The worst thing the Tories could do was underestimate Reform, Ms Braverman emphasised.
She added: "We need to be the party of aspiration, we need to be the party, which says work will pay. We need to be the party for hard workers, for strivers, for those who get up early in the morning and go to work and come back late at night, to get people off welfare and into work.
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"We have far too many people, for who it's too easy to claim welfare and not work, that's not something we should be supporting.
"We need to be the party that is unapologetically on the right side of sovereignty in the nation state, so we should stand up for our interests abroad.”
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Speaking yesterday about her husband’s decision, Ms Braverman said: “It’s not true. I am not defecting.
“My husband and I have a healthy respect for each other’s independence - he doesn’t tell me how to do my job, and I don’t tell him how to pick a political party.”
Reform unveiled another new recruit today: billionaire Nick Candy, 51, who is leaving the Tories to become its Treasurer in the New Year.