Suella Braverman eyes up Reform

Lost in all the Zia Yusuf hokey-cokey was former home secretary Suella Braverman popping up in the Daily Telegraph comment section to remind the world that she too thinks it is for the government to decide what people wear.

“The question of banning the burqa and niqab is not a trivial sideshow in the culture wars,” she frothed. “It is a litmus test of national self-belief. It goes to the heart of whether Britain has a solution to the complex problems caused by rapid population increase and demographic change.” The solution to those complex problems? “We must start by outlawing one of the most visible symbols of separation: the full-face veil.”

Is this what tabloid sports sub-editors used to refer to as a “come-and-get-me plea” to Reform? Once one of the most outspoken Tories, Braverman has been virtually invisible since last year’s general election, appears to have no part in Kemi Badenoch’s plans and has been comprehensively outflanked on the party’s populist right by the shameless Robert Jenrick. And lest we forget: Braverman’s husband is already a Reform member.

Curiously, on the same day the Telegraph also ran an op-ed by Ben Habib, the former Reform deputy leader who appears to have belatedly come to the conclusion that his ex-boss is a charlatan. Under the headline ‘Nigel Farage is clearly unfit to govern Britain’, Habib attacked Farage from the right, citing his recent moves on welfare, acceptance of potential Irish unity and offering “to put forward Charlie Mullins, an avowed Remainer, as a candidate”.

Chatter among watchers of the right are that Habib may be about to join forces with Rupert Lowe, another prominent former Reform MP to have fallen foul of Farage’s ego, to form a new party even further to the right, promoting large-scale deportations and Tommy Robinson-style politics. One to watch.