Nigel Farage blow as high-profile figure quits Reform UK after seven months

Top Tory Suella Braverman's husband has quit Reform UK in a blow to Nigel Farage.

Rael Braverman, the partner of the former Home Secretary, said on Wednesday he had left the right-wing party "effective immediately".

Ben Habib, a former co-leader of the party who also quit last year, said he was "not surprised" by the decision of Mr Braverman. He posted on X: "Anyone with a coherent political philosophy which puts the country at its centre is bound to fall out with the bad joke that is Reform Party UK."

Mr Braverman, who defected from the Conservatives to join Mr Farage's party back in December, did not explain the decision to leave the party. But he recently mocked the decision of former Tory chairman Jake Berry to defect to Reform UK, posting on X: "Jake who?"

And just yesterday the prominent Reform UK party official, Zia Yusuf, criticised the ex-Tory Home Secretary, Ms Braverman.

It followed news of a massive data breach of Afghans desperate to flee to the UK which resulted in a secret relocation scheme and legal cover-up under the Conservatives.

Mr Yusuf posted on X on Tuesday: "The British government learnt of the data leak in August 2023. 24k Afghans secretly granted asylum, costing British taxpayers up to £7 billion.

"The government covered it up. Who was in government? Home Secretary: Suella Braverman. Immigration Minister: Robert Jenrick."

In the Commons on Wednesday at PMQs Keir Starmer also said former ministers in the previous Tory government had "serious questions" to answer.

The PM hit out at the Conservatives over the "major data breach" which saw a defence official release details of almost 19,000 people seeking to flee Afghanistan after the return of the Taliban.

He said: "We warned in opposition about Conservative management of this policy and yesterday, the Defence Secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited: a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

"Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen."

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