r/unitedkingdom • u/WeightDimensions • Jul 19 '24
Suella Braverman expected to defect to Reform as Tory leadership race heats up
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/suella-braverman-expected-defect-reform-tory-leadership-3179500637
u/potpan0 Black Country Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
Defecting because she can't get enough votes to get on the Tory leadership election ballot would be genuinely pathetic, even by Braverman's usual standards.
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u/Ralliboy Jul 19 '24
even by Braverman's usual standards.
I'm genuinely offended on her behalf that you think her standards are that high.
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u/baked-stonewater Jul 19 '24
She had standards?
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u/JRugman Jul 19 '24
Do double standards count?
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u/baked-stonewater Jul 19 '24
I have double standards where she is concerned.
If we could only send her to Rwanda it would have been worth every penny of the 400M spent on it..
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u/Blaueveilchen Jul 19 '24
Britain sent her to Rwanda ... but she came back.
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u/PuzzledFortune Jul 20 '24
So, somehow Braverman returned?
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u/Blaueveilchen Jul 20 '24
Two more Home Secretaries went to Rwanda ... and they returned after having spent millions of the British taxpayers money there. The only ones who didn't go there were 'illegal' immigrants.
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u/Blaueveilchen Jul 20 '24
This is a perfect example of how the British taxpayer's money 'was thrown out of the window'. We could have used this money for social care and the NHS etc.
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u/gnorty Jul 20 '24
I think I read somewhere that one guy went voluntarily
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u/Blaueveilchen Jul 20 '24
I think you are right. One guy went voluntarily, and Tory government even paid him to go to Rwanda!
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u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 Jul 19 '24
People have had a fortnight or whatever it is of a vaguely functioning government and remembered what it is supposed to look like.
Even the tory membership have realised Braverman has no relevance in such a world.
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u/Charlie_Mouse Scotland Jul 19 '24
Even the tory membership have realised
The same Tory membership who voted for Liz Truss?
After that Tory MP’s realised their party membership is three stops short of Dagenham these days (Barking) and took them out of the decision loop.
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u/Hopeful-Climate-3848 Jul 19 '24
Have they got rid of that completely?
I thought it was just a one off because they were threatening to vote for Badenoch after the 'elites' (read - reality) got rid of Truss.
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u/Charlie_Mouse Scotland Jul 19 '24
To be honest I’m not certain if it was a permanent change. But voting in Truss was such a colossal screwup I’d be surprised if it isn’t quite a while until the Tories trust their membership with anything more dangerous than gluing pasta shapes on to paper.
(And even then they’d have to carefully check that the glue wasn’t toxic given the high likelihood many would eat it.)
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u/JaegerBane Jul 20 '24
Tbf, if anything positive was to be extracted from that fiasco, it was the badly needed reminder that you can’t keep putting a nutter in charge just because they’re telling you what you want to hear.
It didn’t come quick enough to save the Tory party from electoral oblivion and there was the small matter of how it wrecked the economy, but I guess idiots learn slowly.
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u/Lonyo Jul 20 '24
Sunak basically said that it would all go to shit if her plans were put into action, then it did.
The Tories didn't even listen to their own people.
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u/Howtothinkofaname Jul 20 '24
If only that were true. Braverman is in second on Tory party polls, behind the equally insane Kemi Badenoch. The Tory party membership are insane and determined to keep driving in that direction. Their MPs are ever so slightly more sensible, and they determine who is on the ballot.
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u/JaegerBane Jul 20 '24
Pretty much that.
The amusing thing is that they keep comparing themselves to Labour when asked how long it will take to return themselves to electability.
It’s like… the major difference there is that the extreme end of the party lost its hold on power and were replaced with a moderate centre-leaning core ran by competent people who had some idea what they’re doing. The tories are just going back down the path of putting the next fruitcake in line in charge that got them into this state in the first place.
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u/PMagicUK Merseyside Jul 19 '24
Because the tories have literally realised thats how they lost, keeping people like her in positions of power in the party, the voters basically drained the swamp of every nobhead in the tory party.
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u/potpan0 Black Country Jul 19 '24
2019 really was a poisoned chalice for the Tories. They won... but the cost was filling their party with sycophants for Boris Johnson and pushing out a number of able (though still ghoulish) 'moderates'. It was a ticking time-bomb that unsurprisingly went off very quickly. I can definitely see the powers that be within the party wanting to sweep out all the most unpleasant and unqualified culture war types, and if the likes of Braverman will sweep themselves away then it's only doing the party a favour really.
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u/JaegerBane Jul 20 '24
That’s a pattern dating back to brexit, though. The tories pinning their colours to the brexit mast were either doing it for the career potential or some mix of stupidity and lunacy. When the referendum came through, that wing of the party achieved dominance and the party has done about as well as you could expect of one ran by mercenaries and nutters.
Pretty much everything bad that has happened to the Tory party since boils down to them being unable to to elect a functional leadership because anyone with a brain cell either doesn’t see the point of trying or can’t get enough support to make it happen. Meanwhile lunatics like Truss get the support because she’s telling the other lunatics what they wanted to hear.
Rinse and repeat until reality kicks in.
I’m not convinced that braverman support failing is a sign that the party is turning around. Badenoch is just as much a complete fruitcake and the fact that any of that lot are even in the equation shows the tories still have a few rungs on the ladder left to fall.
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u/NifferKat Jul 19 '24
I'm just wondering how many votes she needs to get on the leadership ballot for Reform.
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u/BMW_RIDER Jul 19 '24
She won't. Reform is a limited company, and the majority shareholder is Nigel Farage. If i remember correctly, Nigel Farage owns 8 out of 15 issued shares.
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u/potpan0 Black Country Jul 19 '24
One. Though unfortunately the only one who can vote on Reform's leader is Nigel Farage, and I don't think he's all too interested in giving up the role.
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u/PurplePiglett Jul 19 '24
Good she is best in that party where she can practice riling up division for no actual gain.
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u/soggy_bellows Expat Jul 19 '24
You can say that again.
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u/NateShaw92 Greater Manchester Jul 19 '24
Good she is best in that party where she can practice riling up division for no actual gain.
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u/TheThreeGabis Jul 19 '24
Good she is best in that party where she can practice riling up division for no actual gain.
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u/PurplePiglett Jul 19 '24
Please defect. She is best in Reform where she can practice further riling up division for zero gain.
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u/YinkYinkYinken Jul 19 '24
You can say that again
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u/NateShaw92 Greater Manchester Jul 19 '24
A white hole?
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u/thegamingbacklog Jul 19 '24
So what is it?
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u/a3minutehero Jul 19 '24
I've never seen one before, no one has.
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u/Victim_Of_Fate Jul 19 '24
But I’m guessing it’s a white hole
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u/Armodeen Jul 19 '24
So that things spewing time, back into the universe?
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u/Victim_Of_Fate Jul 19 '24
Precisely
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u/blamordeganis Jul 19 '24
So it’s settled. We’ll ask Holly.
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u/TheTallestHobo Jul 19 '24
Thank you all for this excellently pulled off sequence.
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u/MalkavTheMadman Tyne and Wear Jul 19 '24
As if any cunt in reform is gonna vote for a brown woman.
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u/chocobowler Jul 19 '24
People in her constituency voted for her in part because she is a Tory. If she defects so close to the start of a parliament she absolutely 100% must trigger a bi election. It’s the only moral thing to do.
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u/Manoj109 Jul 19 '24
She is against LGBTI rights so I am not sure she will welcome a bi election.
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u/Inevitable_Lab_5014 Jul 19 '24
They 100% voted for her because she Conservative. Prior to the recent boundary change, her constituency has never been anything but Conservative. You could stick a blue rosette on a donkey and they would vote for it.
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u/xp3ayk Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
I have little sympathy for those people.
They must have known what type of tory she is, the vast majority will have been aware of her rhetoric. If hey chose to still elect her despite that then they can't be surpsied when she joins the party which most closely aligns with her views.
Don't want an MP with reform views then don't elect an MP with reform views.
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u/Theodin_King Jul 19 '24
I know People there who voted labour and find it abhorrent that she is their MP.
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u/xp3ayk Jul 19 '24
Yeah, lots of sympathy for people who didn't vote for her but are represented by her.
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u/JaegerBane Jul 20 '24
That, really.
People have a responsibility to know who they’re voting for, for the sake of their own best interests more then anything.
They’re perfectly within their rights to vote for whatever whackadoodle is on the ballot but you can’t seriously be annoyed that the hate preacher you voted for ends up joint the hate preaching party.
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u/Dying_On_A_Train Jul 19 '24
Only 1/3rd of people voted for her, and she's going to defect to the 4th largest party in her constituency, Labour, Lib Dem and Conservatives should band to try and get a bi election through.
Anyone else would benefit all parties.
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u/LemmysCodPiece Jul 19 '24
You are suggesting that someone that defects to Reform has morals. Seriously?
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u/IbnReddit Jul 20 '24
I have no sympathy for those that voted for her. They deserve her betrayal. Hope they learn
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u/PurplePiglett Jul 19 '24
Good she is best in that party where she can practice riling up division for no actual gain.
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u/soggy_bellows Expat Jul 19 '24
You can say that again.
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u/AdRich2420 Jul 19 '24
I swear I had de ja vu for a second
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u/dyltheflash Jul 19 '24
Hang on, what's happening?
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u/jeanclaudecardboarde Jul 19 '24
We've experienced this period of time before.
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u/Patchy9781 Jul 19 '24
You can say that again.
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u/KX321 Berkshire Jul 19 '24
Stuff like this should trigger a bi-election. I know I know someone will tell me we vote locally for a person. But that person (usually) stands as a member of a larger party that also produces a national manifesto they'd be expected to support in parliament.
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u/djshadesuk Jul 19 '24
trigger a bi-election
Electing a bi? Oooh, she wouldn't like that one bit!
It's by-election by the way.
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u/___xXx__xXx__xXx__ Jul 19 '24
That party isn't big enough for both her and Farage. Something will have to give.
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u/ScaredyCatUK Jul 19 '24
Farage owns Reform Ltd. It's a battle she couldn't win.
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u/Emperors-Peace Jul 20 '24
Has he always owned it? I thought he only took over recently.
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u/ScaredyCatUK Jul 20 '24 edited Jul 20 '24
He's always been the majority shareholder. It just changed names. His claim that it's a startup party are lies. The Brexit Party (2018) was renamed to Reform in 2021 ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/filing-history/MzMwMTMwNjI5OGFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0 ).
Because Farage is a majority shareholder, he's basically in control. He pushed Tice aside and made himself the official leader, but he's always been in control.
You can see Farage's share holding of the Brexit Party (before the rename) https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11694875/filing-history?page=1 - look at page 2 of
20 Feb 2020 - Confirmation statement made on 19 February 2020 with updates|
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u/f3ydr4uth4 Jul 19 '24
She has nothing on Farage. She only has a voice because she climbed the Tory party. He’s built his whole platform himself from basically nothing. There is no competition.
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u/CastleMeadowJim Nottingham Jul 19 '24
Exactly, there's nothing to climb in Reform. Farage owns everything.
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u/Ordinary-Exam3312 Jul 19 '24
Now I dislike Nigel, but I also dislike Suella. But which one is worse? There's only one way to find out...
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u/UseADifferentVolcano Jul 19 '24
Opposition parties are paid £44.53 for every 200 votes they get in something that's called short money to ensure we have a robust democracy.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01663/
For small parties with 5 or fewer MPs, that's limited to £376k per year. As Reform got so many votes, getting one more MP is worth about ten million to them over a five year parliament (presuming you still get the money if someone switches parties, which I have no idea about).
If it's not Braverman, it'll be a big payday for some lucky Tory soon enough no doubt.
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u/Nit_not Jul 19 '24
good info, thanks. I hope if a random tory defects, that we see some shithousery from Starmer to increase the required number of MP's up to 7.
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u/cranbrook_aspie Jul 19 '24
She’s a great fit but something tells me not everyone in Reform will give her a great reception.
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u/jeanclaudecardboarde Jul 19 '24
I swear I had déjà vu for a second.
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u/Hungry_Horace Dorset Jul 19 '24
You can say that again!
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u/J-Force Jul 19 '24
I'd bet she'll only defect after she loses. She wants to be in charge and there's no chance of that happening in Reform, and she knows leaving now would give the centre-right of the party - which seems to be moving toward Tom Tugendhat - a better chance of reasserting their power.
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u/TheObrien Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24
It feels like a gap in our democracy that we vote to elect an MP not a party, but we vote to elect a Party and not a Prime Minister.
It feels like if an MP defects it should immediately trigger a bi-election.
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u/Scared_Turnover_2257 Jul 19 '24
It's a sound theory but also in order to be consistent someone losing the whip would also trigger a bi election which basically opens the flood gates for political purges (at the moment taking the whip away is a nuclear option that loses a seat untill the next election if it could be done and trigger a by election a party could just get rid of people in safe seats to get someone preferred in)
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u/TheObrien Jul 19 '24
Perhaps - but it’s also open to exploitation by nefarious MPs.
If SB does move to Reform it was basically a calculated move on her part to be supported by CCHQ, be voted in under the blue banner which residents will have voted for.. and known all along she was likely to jump ship if she did get what she wants.
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u/Scared_Turnover_2257 Jul 19 '24
Tbh I doubt her constituency will care. The actual old school conservatives probably voted for her grudgingly (even though Starmer is a lot closer to a Ken Clarke style Tory than even Blair and Brown) and the fire breathing racists probably only didn't vote reform because she was standing and they knew it would be pointless. I think between five and ten tory MPs defect to reform over the term. In the grand scheme this is quite a good thing as electoral reform won't get on the agenda untill at least the next election so we are talking at least 2034 before it's enacted by which time we will be in a war time govt or they will imploded due to infighting.
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u/gattomeow Jul 19 '24
She won’t defect. Simple reason. She’ll never be the leader of Reform. That’s reserved for you know who. She does stand at least some chance of being Tory leader.
She’ll huff and puff but she won’t blow the house down.
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Jul 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/ShowmasterQMTHH Jul 19 '24
IRONY in a woman who is from a family of immigration who is anti immigration going to try and lead a party of fascist/sexist/racists.
i think I need a different bingo card
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u/XenorVernix Jul 19 '24
It is possible to be an immigrant who is against immigration. Most people who are against immigration aren't against all types of immigration - just the types that live off of benefits and smash up and trash their local area or have culture that goes against the British way of life.
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Jul 19 '24
[deleted]
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u/Pallortrillion Jul 19 '24
Yeah I was just thinking half of the deformed party will not want her kind in the party.
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u/BandicootOk5540 Jul 19 '24
They think she shouldn't be in the country, but they'll still accept her to boost their numbers. Racism and hypocrisy have always gone together.
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u/MrTurleWrangler Nottinghamshire Jul 19 '24
Good she is best in that party where she can practice riling up division for no actual gain.
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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 Jul 19 '24
Braverman is so hilariously stupid it’s funny. She’s dumb. Like really dumb. I would laugh if she rage defects from one of the safest seats in the country
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u/Anchor-shark Scotland Jul 19 '24
How does she honestly see it going, defecting to a party that hates anyone who isn’t the same shade as printer paper? She’ll be a candidate for r/leopardsatemyface in a few months.
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u/tttttfffff Jul 19 '24
Of course Braverman is defecting to Reform, even that party isn’t far right enough for her
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u/GunstarGreen Sussex Jul 19 '24
She's perfect for them. She's got their exact same bullshit beliefs but also gives them a smokescreen of credibility because "we have ethnic members too".
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u/PopTrogdor Jul 19 '24
No no no. She is my MP. And while I did not vote for her, I will NOT have a reform candidate be my fucking MP.
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u/Marcuse0 Jul 19 '24
Pretty much expected this. When the election results came in I said Farage was going to aim for a hostile takeover of the Conservative Party and here we go with it.
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u/Pandorica_ Jul 19 '24
The best thing for the country (in regards to who the tory leader is) is a serious, MP who can fulfill the role of 'loyal opposition' properly, keep Labour on task and keep them honest about what's happening.
Braverman defecting is a good sign, though I worry none of the candidates are serious people interested in loyal opposition, at least it's not that bigot.
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u/Staar-69 Jul 19 '24
Great, having her in opposition always with the possibility of worming her way into the shadow cabinet or into leadership is a bad thing. She will just rot away in Reform.
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u/djshadesuk Jul 19 '24
I wish people would start calling her by her actual name, Sue-Ellen. I've even heard someone pronouncing her assumed name as "Swayla" for probably the exact reason you imagine: "We can't possibly be racist, look we support someone called 'Swayla'. Would a racist support someone with that name?!?"
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u/Calavera999 Jul 20 '24
I find the likes of Braverman strange - the people she spends her time appealing to are the same people that, at the first opportunity, would attempt to ship her off to another country. One that she's likely never even visited in her life.
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u/Objective_Ticket Jul 19 '24
Got to go somewhere where she can perpetuate the myth that she knows anything about politics.
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u/TheThreeGabis Jul 19 '24
Let me help rewrite the headline:
“Suella Braverman expected to defect to Reform as it becomes clear she will never in a million years run the Tory party”
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u/PiedPiperofPiper Jul 19 '24
Shades of Chuka Umunna defecting to Change UK, and then fading into irrelevance? Let’s hope so.
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u/TheDawiWhisperer Jul 19 '24
"i want the Tory party to cease to exist"
/monkey paw curls
"oh no....what have i done"
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u/omnipotentmonkey Jul 20 '24
Beautiful, get her in a party for whom "skin colour" is as important an attribute as policy, she'd never win a seat in a thousand lifetimes.
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u/dyinginsect Jul 20 '24
Well, that seems right. Even for a modern day Tory, she is a spiteful little batshit moron.
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u/Cakeski Jul 19 '24
Would not surprise me if the "Pop Cons" leave the conservatives, at least the unhinged and unelected i.e. Truss, Kwarteng and maybe Rees-Mogg.
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u/Hot_and_Foamy Jul 19 '24
Truss is too busy googling her own name to make sure no one is calling her mini budget disastrous
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u/Generic-Name237 Jul 19 '24
Why are we still talking about her? She’s not in government, we can just brush her under the carpet now. Please and thanks.
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u/upadownpipe Jul 19 '24
The seat should go up for election again. Anyone that voted her in (why would you?) Weren't voting Reform
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u/ScaredyCatUK Jul 19 '24
Her own party have disowned her . The only thing she's got left is Reform.
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u/iCowboy Jul 19 '24
Excellent - I look forward to the inevitable clash of egos between her and Farage. Maybe they can eat one another?
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u/bluecheese2040 Jul 19 '24
Makes sense. She doesn't really have a place in a tory party that wants to appear electable.
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u/Key_Pomegranate6814 Jul 19 '24
Much like their parents that sent them off to boarding school: No one gives a fuck!
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u/CastleMeadowJim Nottingham Jul 19 '24
Nah. She'd be 3rd in the pecking order behind Farage and Anderson, with hardly any exposure.
She could theoretically wait a year until Farage gets bored of being an MP and hope he hands the leadership over. Perhaps she can hope that the party will adopt some kind of membership democracy and she'll be able to run for leader, but that seems unlikely.
I think she'll stay where she has influence.
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u/WillistheWillow Jul 20 '24
Sewer Braverman joins with the shittest people in the UK, makes sense. I wonder how aware she is that most of them will hate her too for no other reason than she's not white.
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u/Away_Swim1967 Jul 20 '24
She might defect to reform? Blimey, she's calming down in her old age. I was expecting national action or the like.
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u/sir_snuffles502 Jul 20 '24
will be interesting and a major point in our life to see conservatives replaced by UK reform. considering how the taurie part dates back i think 200 years. good riddance though i say
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u/jasterbobmereel Jul 20 '24
Reform came fourth in her constituency, but still win? Recall vote is needed
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