Suella Braverman’s worst moments as failed Tory defects to Nigel Farage’s Reform
Conservative former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has repeatedly made headlines over the years with a series of hard-line, offensive and down right weird comments
Reform UK’s newest recruit Suella Braverman has courted controversy over the years(Image: Getty Images)
Suella Braverman has jumped ship to Reform – bringing with her a lot of baggage.
The former Home Secretary has repeatedly made headlines over the years with a series of hard-line, offensive and down right weird comments. She was also twice sacked from the Home Office, once for breaking the ministerial code.
Mrs Braverman joins a bunch of her old comrades in joining Nigel Farage’s party, including her former Home Office underling Robert Jenrick. She claimed she was defecting as Britain is “broken” – but failed to take credit for being in the last four Tory administrations that she is now slagging off.
Here are some of her worst moments – from a row with Elton John to attacks on the homeless and migrants.
READ MORE: Tories pull statement attacking Suella Braverman’s mental health after Reform defectionREAD MORE: Shamed ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman joins Reform and launches poisonous rant
1. I have a ‘dream’… to see people deported
The-then Home Secretary was widely condemned for saying it was her “dream” to see asylum seekers deported under the Tories failed Rwanda scheme. At Conservative Party fringe event in 2022, she said: “I would love to have a front page of the Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda, that’s my dream, it’s my obsession.”
She was criticised for trivialising the plight of people seeking asylum – and some people mocked her by comparing it to Martin Luther King Jr’s iconic speech ‘I have a dream’ speech about equality.
2. Sacked for leaking sensitive documents
Ms Braverman was sensationally sacked as Home Secretary after she sent an official document to a Tory backbencher from a personal email. Ms Braverman, who had been in the role for just six weeks under Liz Truss, was forced out for breaching the ministerial code in October 2022.
She said she made a “mistake” which she conceded was a “technical infringement” of the rules. But just six days later, despite promising a Government of “integrity and professionalism”, new PM Rishi Sunak reappointed her to the role.
3. Picking fight with police in unauthorised rant
Ms Braverman was eventually sacked by Rishi Sunak in 2023 over an article she wrote for The Times, which accused police chiefs of “playing favourites” with pro-Palestinian marches. Her rant likened protests to demonstrations in Northern Ireland, which sparked a backlash. And it later emerged that she hadn’t cleared it with No10, raising questions about whether she’d breached the ministerial code (again).
4. Being homeless is a ‘lifestyle choice’
Ms Braverman described homelessness a “lifestyle choice” as she demanded a crackdown on people sleeping in tents. She outlined plans to fine charities who help desperate people camp out on the streets.
The top Tory wrote: “We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice.”
5. ‘Demanding special treatment’ over speeding fine
Scandal-prone Braverman was dubbed “Speedy Sue” after accusations she had sought special treatment when she was caught speeding. She repeatedly insisted that “nothing untoward happened” when it emerged that she asked civil servants to enlist her on a private speed awareness course.
William Wragg, who was then chair of the Public Administration Committee, claimed on Twitter that she had asked if she could claim a speeding fine on expenses.
To make matters worse, her aide insisted to The Mirror that his boss had never been given a speeding fine – which later turned out to be untrue. The Tory special adviser denied four times that the Home Secretary had been done for speeding and claimed it was “nonsense”.
6. Labelling small boat migrants as ‘invasion’
The-the Home Secretary was repeatedly told that her language around asylum seekers was provocative and hateful. In a speech to the House of Commons that was widely condemned, she referred to an “invasion” of the south coast.
It prompted claims that she was mimicking the language of the far-right. Her comments came only days after incendiary devices were thrown at a Dover migrant processing centre.
7. Bizarre ‘tofu-eating wokerati’ outburst
In a bizarre outburst, she accused opponents of being a “coalition of chaos”. Moaning about disruption called by protesters like Just Stop Oil, she reeled off a list of things she hates.’
She told the Commons: “It’s the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, dare I say, the anti-growth coalition that we have to thank for the disruption that we are seeing on our roads today.”
8. Grooming gang comments
Ms Braverman sparked an outcry by singling out British-Pakistani men when talking about grooming gangs. This was despite Home Office figures finding white men under 30 are most common in child sexual exploitation cases.
The Home Secretary told Sky News: “What’s clear is that what we’ve seen is a practice whereby vulnerable white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British Pakistani men who’ve worked in child abuse rings or networks.”
9. Attacks on civil servants
The same month, an email sent out to Tory members in Ms Braverman’s name blamed “an activist blob of left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party” for blocking previous attempts to tackle illegal migration. She was accused of potentially breaking ministerial rules by questioning the impartiality of public servants.
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, said the email amounted to a “direct attack on the integrity and impartiality” of those working in the Home Office. The Prime Minister’s press secretary told reporters Mrs Braverman “did not see, sign off or sanction” the email, which she said was sent in error.
10. Row with Elton John over LGBT+ jibe
Ms Braverman claimed asylum seekers “pretend to be gay” in September after being accused by Sir Elton John of “legitimising hate” against LGBT+ people.
The Home Secretary came under fire after demanding key UN protections for refugees are torn up, and said it should be harder for LGBT refugees to be allowed in. In a heavily-criticised speech Ms Braverman claimed being gay in countries hostile to homosexuality isn’t “enough” to justify asylum claims.
11. Not being aware of refugee killings in Rwanda
In April 2023, Ms Braverman claimed to have no knowledge of the killings of 12 refugees in Rwanda after they joined a protest.
Despite the incident being referred to in Home Office documents and raised by Yvette Cooper months earlier in the Commons, she told the BBC of the 2018 incident: “I’m not familiar with that particular case.”
