Tories are heading for extinction unless they stop Nigel Farage in his tracks, Suella Braverman warns
THE Tories are heading for extinction unless they stop Nigel Farage in his tracks, Suella Braverman insists.
The ex-Home Secretary, who has not ruled out a run to be next party leader, argues it faces a threat to its very being from Reform UK.
Her scathing assessment came as potential rivals Victoria Atkins and Robert Jenrick also launched unofficial pitches for the job.
Ms Braverman told GB News: “Millions of our voters were betrayed and angry with the Conservatives and they went to an alternative, Reform.
“I believe whoever’s leading the party, whoever’s in the party, needs to acknowledge this basic truth, that we are facing an existential threat from Reform and we need to change ourselves to ensure that we neutralise that threat, that we bring those people back home.”
The right-winger has been tipped to defect to Reform, given she shares many of its ideas, but she refused to be drawn on the matter yesterday.
Reform now has five MPs, including leader Mr Farage, and won more than four million votes in the election.
Ms Braverman also used a Sunday Telegraph article to describe Rishi Sunak’s policies as “idiotic” as she blamed the defeat on his weak stance on immigration.
Similarly, ex-immigration minister Mr Jenrick said the Tories lost heavily because they failed to deliver on promises, including borders.
He told the BBC: “When we said, for example, on immigration that we would do whatever it takes, we didn’t do whatever it takes.”
But he stopped short of launching his leadership bid.
On the same programme, former Health Secretary Ms Atkins said the Tories, reduced to just 121 MPs, had a chance to recover, as Labour support was “spread very thinly, a little bit like margarine”.