Suella Braverman's defection to Reform branded a 'misjudgement' by Tory MP: 'It's a real sadness'

In her first interview since joining Nigel Farage's party, Mrs Braverman said she "won't be the last" to quit the Tories and join Reform.

She said: "I don't think I'm going to be the last one. I know there are a lot of unhappy Conservative MPs really searching their souls right now.

"It's a big thing to do, and I think it's very difficult to grapple with this tension that many Conservative MPs are finding themselves with party versus country, and that is not an easy reconciliation. The way I think it should be resolved is by coming to Reform UK."

Offering his reaction to the defection, Mr Jenkin told GB News: "I'm sad about it. I once supported Suella to be leader back in 2017. She was the only one at that stage who was prepared to say the truth about the European Convention on Human Rights.

"But now it's rather ironic that Kemi Badenoch has set out very clearly and very carefully how the UK should leave the European Convention, she's chosen now to leave the Conservative Party."

Dismissing Mrs Braverman's claims that the party is "shifting to the left", he argued: "This idea that the Conservative Party is shifting to the left is just fantasy being promoted by Reform.

"Kemi herself says we are the party of the right, and it's the unhappiness of people on the old left of the party, most of whom are not in Parliament now, that they have set up this new group to which he refers."

Admitting there is a "sadness" to her departure, the Tory MP explained: "The real sadness about Suella leaving, I think she's made a misjudgement, the last time there was a defection, Kemi overtook Nigel Farage in the poll ratings and the Conservative Party started to go up in the opinion polls.

"So I think the idea that it's all over for the Tories is a little premature."

He added: "I remember when the Social Democratic Party was on 50 per cent in the early 1980s, and at the end of that parliament they only finished up with a handful of seats, so this is no indication as to what's going to happen in the future."

Grilled by host Michelle Dewberry on the statement released by the Conservatives, which spoke of Mrs Braverman's "mental health", Mr Jenkin admitted the remarks were a "mistake".

He told GB News: "It was absolutely not appropriate, and as soon as I heard about it, I asked what was going on, and I found that Kemi had immediately pulled it. She hadn't seen it, she hadn't approved it. These were not her words or the words of any member of Parliament.

"Obviously, there's going to be a bit of an inquest as to how that happened, I gather it got lost in translation. There was a reference to her attitude to welfare, of course she wants to put up welfare spending, not cut welfare spending, which is what the policy should be.

"She wants to abolish the two child benefit cap, like Nigel Farage, they've got no plan to cut public spending. But obviously that statement was a mistake, and it's been pulled immediately. You're perfectly right to draw attention to it, but it was a mistake, and it certainly didn't reflect the values of the Conservative Party."

Responding to Mrs Braverman's claims that the Conservative Party is a "toxic circus" and a "very unhealthy place", Mr Jenkin told GB News: "I do think it's fair to say she was very unhappy in the Conservative Party. She had become very isolated. I counted her as a friend some years ago, and she didn't talk to me.

"She didn't talk to anybody, and I wish she'd talked to us. I wish she had shared a bit more of this, but she was clearly very angry and upset. Ironically, she was the Home Secretary when there was this huge wave of immigration. She was the Home Secretary when the Human Rights Act was stopping us deporting illegal migrants. And she was a senior minister when all these taxes were going up."

He concluded: "The important point here is that Kemi is not disowning those mistakes, but she's saying that we must learn from them and make sure we pull together a proper program.

"The next Conservative Government or the next Government is going to have to pull down spending and taxes and borrowing and spend more on defence. Which is very easy to say, and very difficult to do."