Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman has defected to Reform UK.

The MP for Fareham and  Waterlooville Suella Braverman becomes the latest high-profile Conservative politician to switch parties.

Leader Nigel Farage made the surprise announcement at a rally for party veterans in central London.

Ms Braverman told Reform supporters she had also resigned her Tory membership of 30 years, adding: “I feel like I’ve come home.”

She becomes the fourth sitting Tory MP to join the party since the last election, and the third this month, alongside Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell.

The defection brings Reform’s current tally of MPs to eight.

Ms Braverman told Reform supporters she had joined Reform UK because of her love for her country.

She said: “Britain is indeed broken. She is suffering. She is not well. Immigration is out of control. Our public services are on their knees. People don’t feel safe.

“Our youngsters are leaving the country for better futures elsewhere.

“We can’t even defend ourselves, and our nation stands weak and humiliated on the world stage.

“So we stand at a crossroads.

“We can either continue down this route of managed decline to weakness and surrender. Or we can fix our country, reclaim our power, rediscover our strength.

“I believe that a better Britain is possible.

“And because I believe, with my heart and soul, that a better future is possible for us, I am joining Reform UK.”

She later added: “There is only one man in British politics who has been courageously consistent for his country, and that man is Nigel Farage.”