'No stronger advocate for Britain!' Suella Braverman's defection to Reform celebrated by Laila Cunningham

Breaking ranks with her former party, the new Reform MP said: "I'm calling time on Tory betrayal, Tory lies, on Tory promises with zero intention of keeping them.

"Our country is crying out for authentic leadership. We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender, or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength."

Reacting to Mrs Braverman's defection, Ms Cunningham told GB News: "It's becoming a strong, powerful Reform Party that's going to win.

"We take everyone with talent, anyone who believes in British sovereignty, anyone who's been an advocate for leaving the ECHR, and I don't think there hasn't been a stronger advocate in the Tory Party than Suella."

Pressed by host Nana Akua on whether Reform is becoming the "Conservatives 2.0", she hit back: "Some might feel like that, but we are attracting the best of the best. Suella was the most popular backbencher, I think Robert Jenrick was a popular shadow minister.

"So it is a problem when their most popular people are coming to us. They're only popular because they went against what the party said, and they didn't put party over people. They always spoke their minds. And that's why they were potentially more popular with the people than they were within the actual party mechanism."

Welcoming more defections from the Conservatives to Reform, Ms Cunningham said: "If you're a strong person with strong opinions and you say something that people actually care about, you will always be divisive. It's just the way we are.

"If you say something that never offends anyone, then you don't really say much at all. So I think you will have people that don't support Robert Jenrick or Suella, people that don't support Nigel or people that don't support Reform.

"But you have a massive amount, the silent, decent working majority, that Reform speaks for, and any Conservative MP that wants to speak for that majority as well is finding that they have to come over because the Conservative Party doesn't speak for them anymore."

Criticising the Tories, she added: "The problem is, I think they realise that the Conservatives are no longer a vehicle of change, and what this country desperately needs is change.

"Robert's speech was very clear that the Conservatives are so complicit in all the difficulties that this country faced, that they can no longer speak for the people because it admits they admit their guilt."

Grilled by Nana on which Tory or Labour MP she would like to see defect next, Ms Cunningham was reluctant to name any names.

She told GB News: "That's not a fair question, I'm gonna need some time on that, I'm afraid."

Quizzed on a possible Labour defection to Reform as early as this week, the Reform MP remained tight-lipped: "I think honestly, and I really get it, if you're an MP and you're so frustrated that your party no longer represents the people, that it's governed by ideology, vested interests and politicians that are only in it for themselves, then you're desperate to join our party.

"If you really are a serious politician who wants to serve the people, no matter what party you're from, you want to go to a party that serves the people and not the party, and Reform has always been."

Ms Cunningham made clear: "None of us are part of Reform because it's a prestigious badge that we wear for an old party that's 200-years-old or something. No, we are all here because we've had enough and we want to change and we want to do something about it.

"And the only leader that is willing to stand up and say, 'enough, let's put the people of this country first, let's put this country first', is Nigel. And so we welcome anyone who recognises that, recognises that the party they were part of was part of the destruction of the country and want to come and do whatever they can to help reverse it."

Breaking silence on Mrs Braverman's defection, a Conservative Party spokesman said: "It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

"The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy. She says she feels that she has 'come home; which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024."