Suella Braverman has categorically ruled out joining a coalition government with the Conservative Party, marking a striking reversal from her previous support for bringing Reform UK and the Tories together to defeat the left.
The former Home Secretary, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK in January and now serves as the party's education spokeswoman, was asked whether she would ever enter government in coalition with her former party.
Her answer was unequivocal: “No. Just no.”
Braverman accused the Conservatives of having “utterly betrayed the British people”, arguing that the party had failed to deliver on immigration and its promises to stop small-boat crossings while in government.
‘I don't trust the Conservative Party’
In an interview with The Times published on Saturday night, Braverman delivered one of her strongest attacks yet on the party she represented in Parliament for more than a decade.
She argued that the Conservatives now support several positions she has long advocated — including leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and reducing immigration — but had taken too long to adopt them.
Braverman said she no longer believed in or trusted the Conservative Party and argued that its record in government should not be forgiven.
Her comments go beyond her recent rejection of a pre-election pact. They explicitly rule out, from Braverman's perspective, entering a Conservative-Reform coalition after an election as well.
A major change from Braverman's previous position
The intervention represents a substantial shift from the position Braverman adopted while she was still a Conservative MP.
In January 2025, she publicly argued that there was insufficient political space for two competing parties on the right and said she was open to a Conservative-Reform arrangement.
Speaking to LBC at the time, Braverman pointed to areas of policy overlap including immigration, law and order and leaving the ECHR, arguing that the two parties would need to find a way of working together if they were to secure an overall parliamentary majority.
She subsequently defected to Reform UK in January 2026, saying she no longer trusted the Conservative Party and accusing it of abandoning the principles she had supported when she joined it.
Braverman draws a line under Tory cooperation
Braverman had already hardened her position before Saturday's interview.
Earlier in August she ruled out a pre-election pact with either the Conservatives or Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain, arguing that Reform was the only political vehicle voters on the right should support.
Her latest intervention goes further by addressing what might happen after a general election if neither Reform nor the Conservatives secured a majority.
Asked specifically whether she would ever participate in a coalition government with her former party, Braverman's answer leaves little ambiguity about her personal position.
Badenoch also rejects Reform coalition
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has meanwhile ruled out such an arrangement from the opposite side of Britain's increasingly divided political right.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe earlier this month, Badenoch said she would rather return to the electorate than form what she described as a “monstrous Reform-Conservative hybrid” in the event of a hung parliament.
She has also attacked former Conservative MPs who defected to Reform, describing some of them as among the most dishonest people she had encountered in politics.
Braverman was among a series of prominent Conservative defectors to Reform during 2026, following Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell.
Farage has previously left door open
Reform leader Nigel Farage has previously been less categorical about what might happen after a future election.
Asked in April about the possibility of an eventual arrangement between Reform and the Conservatives, Farage responded: “Let's see.”
That means Braverman's comments should not automatically be interpreted as a newly announced binding Reform UK policy ruling out every possible post-election arrangement.
They establish her own position clearly, but Farage and the party leadership would ultimately determine Reform's negotiating position if a future general election produced a hung parliament.
Intervention comes before Reform conference
The timing is significant because Reform's annual conference begins next week.
The party is attempting to present itself increasingly as a potential government rather than merely a pressure group on the Conservative Party's right flank.
Braverman has become part of Reform's senior political operation since her defection, taking responsibility for education and equalities policy and recently unveiling the party's apprenticeship proposals.
Her rejection of a Conservative coalition reinforces the argument that Reform should seek to replace the Tories rather than negotiate a route back to government with them.
Battle for the political right intensifies
The exchange exposes the increasingly deep divide between Britain's two principal parties on the political right.
Badenoch says the Conservatives must rebuild independently and has rejected a pact with Farage. Braverman now says she cannot trust her former party sufficiently to govern alongside it.
That is a markedly different position from the one Braverman advanced before her defection, when she argued that Conservatives and Reform shared enough common ground to consider electoral cooperation.
Whether Reform as a party ultimately adopts an equally categorical position on a post-election coalition remains to be seen. For now, Braverman has made her own view unmistakable: there should be no route back into government alongside the Conservatives.
Sources
- The Times: Suella Braverman — A Reform-Conservative coalition? No. Just no — 29 August 2026
- LBC: Braverman's previous support for a Conservative-Reform pact
- LBC: Kemi Badenoch rules out Reform coalition — 23 August 2026
- ITV News: Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK — 26 January 2026
- Reform UK: Suella Braverman education policy announcement — 20 August 2026