Category Archives: conservative party

Tories Row Back After Launching Brutal Attack On Reform Defector Suella Braverman’s ‘Mental Health’

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The Conservatives have amended their initial reaction to Reform UK MP Suella Braverman’s defection after lashing out at her “mental health”.

The former Tory home secretary announced she was joining Nigel Farage’s new party on Monday – and the Conservative team quickly attacked her.

In their initial statement, a Tory spokesperson said: “It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

“The Conservatives did all we could to look after Suella’s mental health, but she was clearly very unhappy.”

The initial message triggered significant backlash on social media, with Tory peer Stewart Jackson calling it a “nasty and unpleasant statement” on X.

He warned: “That’s another few thousand votes they’ve lost.”

Two hours later, the Tories sent out another “final” statement – and removed that second sentence, claiming the first draft was “sent out in error”.

A Reform source said: “It’s a gross affront to millions of people in this country’s; it’s also not true.

“Whether you like Suella or not, she is a Cambridge-educated barrister who has served in a series of extraordinarily senior positions in this country. It goes without saying that she has never been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

″[This] is a testament to the extent to which the Tory party is in real panic mode and is prepared to say anything.”

Braverman later told reporters at a subsequent press conference that those attacks from the Tories “say more about them than they do about me”.

She added: “It is a bit pathetic. I am afraid it’s more sorry signs of a bitter and desperate party that is in free fall.”

The keen eurosceptic announced earlier on Monday that she felt she had “come home” by joining Farage’s Reform.

Braverman was known for trying to push the Conservatives further right when her party was in government.

She held multiple ministerial positions under the last four Tory prime ministers, including attorney-general and home secretary.

As of this afternoon, the Conservatives’ final statement read:

“It was always a matter of when, not if, Suella would defect.

“She says she feels that she has ‘come home’, which will come as a surprise to the people who chose not to elect a Reform MP in her constituency in 2024.

“There are some people who are MPs because they care about their communities and want to deliver a better country.

“There are others who do it for their personal ambition.

“Suella stood for leader of the Conservatives in 2022 and came sixth, behind Kemi and Tom Tugendhat.

“In 2024 she could not even muster enough supporters to get on the ballot. She has now decided to try her luck with Nigel Farage, who said last year he didn’t want her in Reform.

“They really are doing our ‘Spring cleaning’!

“As always happens with Reform, they unveil defections just when the Labour government is tearing itself to pieces – Rayner, Mandelson, now Burnham.

“Reform are too busy opposing the Conservatives to hold the Labour government to account.

“The Conservative Party is now the only party that believes in smaller government, less welfare and Britain living within its means, and has the team and the experience to get Britain working again.”

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‘A Shameless Chancer’: Jenrick Slammed After Quitting Tories For Reform

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Robert Jenrick has been branded “a shameless chancer” after defecting from the Tories to Reform UK.

The former Tory leadership contender jumped ship just hours after Kemi Badenoch sacked him from her frontbench after seeing “clear, irrefutable evidence” of his betrayal.

That turned out to be a copy of the speech he planned to make announcing his defection, which was leaked to the Conservative leader by someone in Jenrick’s office.

In it, he said: “The Tories and Labour have forfeited the right to govern the United Kingdom. And the mantle now passes to Reform.”

It also emerged that Jenrick first held talks with Reform leader Nigel Farage last September, and since then has repeatedly denied he had any plans to defect to the right-wing party.

Labour chair Anna Turley said: “Robert Jenrick says the Tories broke Britain. Now he wants to do the same again with Farage’s Reform.

“He’s a shameless chancer who, like the other failed Tories who have scuttled off to Reform, are more interested in their careers than the country.

“With Jenrick in tow, Reform clearly wants to deliver the same chaos and decline he did while in government.”

After he was unveiled at a Westminster press conference by Farage, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “This was a conman introducing a charlatan. Robert Jenrick has an industrial-grade brass neck to be complaining about how broken Britain is, when it was him and his Conservative cronies who did such damage to our country and to trust and faith in politics.

“Reform and the Conservatives are two sides of the same coin. Right across the country it is the Liberal Democrats who are leading the fight to defeat them.”

Jenrick used the press conference to launch an astonishing personal attack on two of his former Tory shadow cabinet colleagues.

He said shadow chancellor Mel Stride “was the cabinet minister who oversaw the explosion of the welfare bill” when he was work and pensions secretary.

And he said shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel had “created the migration system that enabled five million migrants to come here”.

However, he praised both of them on X when he was still in the Tory Party.

A senior party source told HuffPost UK: “Knifing two colleagues like that is spectacularly bad form. I hope they duff him up in the lobby next week.”

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Why Both The Tories And Labour Are Facing Backlash Over A Freed Egyptian Activist

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Keir Starmer has just welcomed the news that an activist had been released from Egypt and returned to the UK after years of imprisonment.

But, no sooner had the prime minister confirmed the announcement than the Tories were pointing out Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s shocking old social media posts and attacking the government.

Then, to add a further twist, critics quickly noted that the Conservatives had been campaigning themselves to get the activist released when they were in power.

As the argument hots up online over who is in the wrong, here’s what you need to know.

Who is Alaa Abd El-Fattah?

A British-Egyptian dual national who was detained in Egypt in September 2019, he was sentenced to five years behind bars in December 2021 having been accused of spreading fake news.

However, the UN branded his imprisonment a breach of international law.

He finally returned to the UK on December 26, Boxing Day.

Starmer wrote on X: “I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones, who must be feeling profound relief.

“I want to pay tribute to Alaa’s family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment.

“Alaa’s case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I’m grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon.”

What happened to his social media?

Abd El-Fattah’s release sparked an online deep dive into the activist’s old posts.

In some, dating back to 2010, his account appears to call for violence towards “Zionists” and the police.

To make matters worse for the government, these posts have been unearthed before.

In 2014, the group nominating the activist for the European parliament’s Sakharov prize even decided to withdraw their support for Abd El-Fattah over his anti-Israel posts.

The activist later claimed his online posts had been taken out of context and were written at a time of an Israeli offensive in Gaza.

What do the Tories have to do with this?

The Conservatives also pushed to get Abd El-Fattah released when they were in government and granted him citizenship.

Even so, shadow justice secretary and Tory MP Robert Jenrick has now called for him to be stripped of that citizenship and deported.

He condemned the PM for welcoming Abd El-Fattah as a “serious error of judgement” in a public letter to Starmer.

How has it been received?

Successive governments are now in the spotlight over this incident.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it had already flagged its worries with the government, adding: “The social media history that has emerged from Alaa Abd el-Fattah is of profound concern. His previous extremist and violent rhetoric aimed at ‘Zionists’ and white people in general is threatening to British Jews and the wider public.

“The cross-party campaign for such a person, and the warm welcome issued by the government, demonstrate a broken system with an astonishing lack of due diligence by the authorities.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also wrote on social media: “Whilst Robert Jenrick is right to criticise Starmer … we must not forget that it was the Tory government who started this … Labour are only doing the same as the Tories, just worse.”

Tory MP Alicia Kearns said: “I trusted the process to give Alaa citizenship, and then supported the campaign for his release. I feel deeply let down, and frankly betrayed, having lent my support to his cause, which I now regret.

“It is wholly improper for British citizens to be detained without due process by foreign states; however Alaa must unequivocally apologise and make clear he now wholly rejects the hatred and antisemitism he expressed, which is so wholly incompatible with British values.”

How has the government responded?

It’s understood that Starmer was not aware of Abd El-Fattah’s posts when he welcomed him back to the UK – but No.10 has made it clear it does not support his views.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “Mr el-Fattah is a British citizen. It has been a longstanding priority under successive governments to work for his release from detention, and to see him reunited with his family in the UK. The government condemns Mr el-Fattah’s historic tweets and considers them to be abhorrent.”

However, there’s a risk this issue could continue hanging over the government well into the new year, as opponents call for greater action.

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Unexpected Boost For Starmer As Tory Peer Admits He Would Vote Labour

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A Conservative peer has offered up a surprise boost for Keir Starmer as he would still vote for Labour despite the government’s difficult time in office.

Lord Rose, the chairman of Asda, told LBC that there is widespread frustration with Labour – but suggested that’s still better than the alternatives.

“We’re in a situation now where I think many people in this country would be disappointed with the government they have elected,” Rose told LBC.

“We’ve now got a situation where I don’t believe the Conservatives can make a recovery in time for the next election.

“So let’s assume it’s the election after that.

“You are now going to find yourself in a very difficult situation in 2027, ’28, ’29, where if Labour don’t start delivering some [economic] growth, the Conservatives haven’t recovered in time, and you’ve got the other option – what are you going to vote for?

“Are you going to vote for Reform or are you going to vote for a second government?”

He said: “I would vote for another Labour government, but I would want some change in the meantime.”

Asked why he would vote for another round of Labour, he said: “It’s a question of degrees of pain, isn’t it?

“If I can’t have a resurgent Conservative Party, and they’ve got a lot of work to do to make themselves re-electable – or I’ve got the alternative, which, frankly, is supping with the devil.”

Asked what Kemi Badenoch has to do to secure the Tory peer’s vote again, he said: “She’s got to be doing more of what she’s begun now, I think, but I just think, it does, in all these things, require time, and I’m not sure time is on their side.”

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‘Why would you vote Labour?’
‘It’s a question of degrees of pain.’

Conservative peer Lord Rose explains why he would vote against his party in future elections. pic.twitter.com/yKdhbM6eIY

— LBC (@LBC) December 25, 2025

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‘Why would you vote Labour?’
‘It’s a question of degrees of pain.’

Conservative peer Lord Rose explains why he would vote against his party in future elections. pic.twitter.com/yKdhbM6eIY

— LBC (@LBC) December 25, 2025

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