Suella Braverman: Tories didn’t back me up when I warned about ‘hate marches’

“The party promised to tackle Islamist extremism,” she said. “But as home secretary I told the prime minister that we needed to ban the hate marches, that the Met commissioner was failing the Jewish community and that two-tier policing was damaging public confidence. I warned that someone would be killed. I was blocked and ignored. And then I was sacked for speaking the truth.”

Braverman was sacked by Rishi Sunak in November 2023 after accusing the Metropolitan Police in a piece published by The Times of "playing favourites" in the way it policed protests. In the piece, she said that “right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law.”

Speaking at the Reform UK press conference yesterday, Braverman said ignoring the problems she had highlighted had resulted in disastrous consequences.

“What happened two years later? Jews were murdered in the streets of Britain because of out of control antisemitism and complacent policing”, she said, referring to the deadly terror attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation last October. 

She added: “Not one of my Conservative ministerial colleagues backed me up when it mattered.”

The former home secretary also claimed that it had only been since leaving office that her former colleagues had “all [rushed] to pontificate about two-tier policing”.

During her broadside, she criticised her former party’s record in government when it came to stopping illegal immigration too.

“The party promised to do whatever it takes to stop the boats. As home secretary I tried so many times to persuade the prime minister that we needed to leave the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights]. I was the first Conservative minister to call for us to leave the ECHR because I saw how it undermined our national sovereignty and border security. Conservative colleagues generally attacked me and he blocked me”, she said.

Under Kemi Badenoch the Conservatives have announced the country would leave the ECHR if the party wins the next election, but Braverman characterised this decision as “half-hearted”, and attacked the party leader too, saying she “didn’t support my policy until a few months ago”.

Braverman said she was “incredibly excited and honoured to be joining Reform UK” and praised Farage for his “unique power to articulate the anger, frustration and despair that millions of people feel right now”.

The Conservative Party was forced to apologise after issuing a press release responding to Braverman’s defection that referenced her mental health.

“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,” the statement read.

The party, which later claimed the release was sent out in error, was criticised by politicians and charities.

Immigration minister Mike Tapp said: “I have no sympathy for Suella Braverman when it comes to politics and what she did to our immigration system. But the Tories attacking her mental health is below the standards we expect.”

Rael Braverman, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform in December 2024, said that seeing his wife joining Farage’s party “filled me with pride and resolve”, in a post on X.