Suella makes the ultimate sacrifice as she ditches Tories for Reform | John Crace
That noise? The sound of the barrel getting scraped.Only last summer, Reform insiders were briefing the rightwing media that the party would never welcome Suella Braverman into its ranks.Too much baggage.Too out of control.Reform wasn’t a convalescent home for disgraced and failed Tory MPs.
Surely not? Heaven forbid.So it was only a matter of time before the MP forced to resign from Liz Truss’s cabinet as home secretary for breaking the ministerial code – imagine the shame of being sacked by Liz – and then fired by Rishi Sunak for criticising Scotland Yard’s policing of protests was welcomed by Nigel Farage.Let’s face it: if Kemi Badenoch weren’t already leader of the Tory party, she’d almost certainly be next in line to defect.“I feel like I’ve come home,” said Suella.And in a sense she had.
There are now more members of the Truss cabinet in Reform than there are in Kemi’s shadow team.This after Nige had hijacked what had been intended as a rally for military veterans to welcome her on stage.Nige just can’t help himself.There again, he might have welcomed the distraction.Farage is on dodgy ground trying to champion veterans’ causes after his close mate Donald Trump personally insulted British service personnel last week.
Someone might have got round to asking why the Reform leader so admires the US president,It was the surprise that wasn’t a surprise,The most undramatic drama from Reform yet,The stunt that bombed,Most people in the east London hall had to remind themselves that Braverman hadn’t already defected long ago.
She was Reform long before Reform even existed.An accident waiting to happen.Suella then set about winning over hearts and minds.In her own very special way.You have put your lives on the line, she said to the vets.
Out of love for your country,And she knew what that was like,Because in her own way she had put her own life on the line out of love for her country,All this without a trace of embarrassment,She really does believe she has also been in the frontline with bullets being fired.
“I spent the night in Norway once,” she added.So she could easily have served in the Arctic.Strangely, given that earlier we had heard from an SAS veteran about the levels of homelessness among ex-servicemen and women, Braveman neglected to remind the audience that she considered rough sleeping to be a lifestyle choice.Surely this was the time for the politician who has always prided herself on straight talking to tell it like it is.Stop feeling sorry for yourself because you haven’t got a roof over your head.
Just pretend you are bivouacking behind enemy lines as you try to avoid capture.Next Suella moved on to her parents.Her dad had been expelled from Kenya and sought refuge in the UK.Her mum had come from Mauritius.This must never be allowed to happen again.
Even the grateful ones must go.Everywhere you looked there were far too many immigrants.Britain was broken.People were terrified to walk the streets.It was a war of attrition.
The country was no longer recognisably British.With no sense of irony, Suella segued seamlessly into a discourse on loyalty.A virtue along with honesty that was to be prized above all others.Except everyone got a free pass on these if they were members of the Tory party.What you really had to remember is that she had been living a lie.
She had been trying to be a good Tory MP but she just hadn’t been able to stop herself from rubbishing her friends.Which is why in the greatest act of self-sacrifice and loyalty imaginable, she was resigning the Tory whip.And she knew that some in her Fareham and Waterlooville constituency would be upset.But really she wasn’t that bothered.Certainly not enough to call a byelection.
This was all about her and her ambition.This was her moment to shine.Robert Jenrick was last week’s news.And Andrew Rossindell hadn’t even been worthy of his own press conference.Too many awkward questions.
Too many “no comment” answers.Suella ended with a long attack on the Tories.“We failed you,” she said.Though by we, she meant everyone except her.So not we; they.
Even though she had been attorney general and home secretary, she had been responsible for nothing.Her sackings were portrayed as some kind of personal triumph.A sign of integrity.She had tried her best and everything that had gone wrong was someone else’s fault.The fact that immigration had risen to record levels on her watch was nothing to do with her.
Nige will need to keep a close eye on her,She is a politician you would do well not to trust,That just left Farage to do the final bits of housekeeping,He was sure the veterans wouldn’t mind having their rally totally upstaged,They were used to taking orders and being treated badly.
Start as you mean to go on.He was the general, they were the grunts.And defections were so much more exciting.Though he was beginning to wonder if you can have too much of a good thing.Still, it was too late for quality control.
Reform had long since morphed into the very worst of the Tories,
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