Controversial politician Suella Braverman defects to Farage's Reform UK

British lawmaker Suella Braverman, who was interior minister between 2022 and 2023, has joined Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party from the Conservatives, she said at a press conference on Monday.

Braverman is a sitting lawmaker and becomes the latest Conservative to join Reform after former Conservative Party leadership candidate Robert Jenrick announced he was defecting earlier this month.

"Britain is indeed broken," a visibly emotional Braverman said at the rally, appearing alongside Farage. "Immigration is out of control. Our public services are on their knees. People don't feel safe."

"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. I believe that a better Britain is possible," she said, accusing the Conservatives of lying about their pledge to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

Braverman's defection brings the number of Reform UK MPs to eight.

Ex-Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak sacked Braverman as interior minister in November 2023 after she accused police of left-wing bias and said homelessness was a "lifestyle choice".

After her dismissal, the outspoken lawmaker publicly condemned Sunak for "equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest" over several policies, including cutting immigration.

She also denounced as a "betrayal" Sunak's rejection of withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights as a way to push through his government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

The anti-immigration Reform UK is ahead of both Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour and Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives in opinion polls ahead of an election due in 2029. 

This is a developing story, more to come.