Analysis of: ‘I feel like I’ve come home’: former Tory home secretary Suella Braverman defects to Reform UK – UK politics live
The Guardian | January 26, 2026
TL;DR
Former Tory Home Secretary Braverman defects to Reform UK, revealing a realignment as Britain's far-right consolidates around nationalist rhetoric. Labour's internal turmoil over blocking Andy Burnham exposes contradictions between party management and democratic legitimacy.
Analytical Focus:Class Analysis Contradictions Historical Context
Suella Braverman's defection from the Conservative Party to Reform UK represents more than personal political calculation—it signals a fracturing within Britain's traditional ruling class coalition as the post-Brexit political settlement continues to unravel. Braverman's rhetoric of 'broken Britain' and 'authentic leadership' masks a competition among different factions of capital over how best to manage mounting social contradictions: declining living standards, crumbling public services, and a legitimacy crisis for mainstream parties. The simultaneous Labour crisis over blocking Andy Burnham from a byelection candidacy reveals parallel contradictions on the ostensible left. Labour's justification—preserving 'party resources' against Reform's financial advantage—inadvertently confirms that electoral politics operates increasingly as a contest of capital rather than ideas. The admission that Reform outspends Labour '10-to-1' exposes how bourgeois democracy constrains working-class political expression. Both stories illuminate how Britain's political superstructure struggles to contain economic base contradictions. The Conservative Party's fragmentation and Labour's defensive maneuvers represent different ruling-class responses to the same underlying crisis: neoliberalism's failure to deliver prosperity while maintaining social stability. Reform UK's rise is not a challenge to capital but a repositioning—absorbing discontented Tories while channeling working-class frustration toward nationalism and away from class consciousness.
Class Dynamics
Actors: Professional political class (Braverman, Burnham, Starmer), Reform UK leadership representing petty-bourgeois nationalism, Labour Party apparatus, Working-class voters in constituencies like Gorton and Denton, Media institutions shaping political narratives
Beneficiaries: Reform UK gains legitimacy through established political figures, Political consultants and media from heightened drama, Sections of capital seeking harder nationalist governance
Harmed Parties: Working-class constituents denied meaningful political choice, Veterans invoked rhetorically but whose material conditions remain unchanged, Democratic participation constrained by party bureaucracy
The defection demonstrates how individual politicians function as relatively autonomous agents within class constraints—Braverman's career moves serve personal advancement while reinforcing capitalist political options. Labour's NEC decision reveals internal party hierarchy overriding local democratic will, with leadership using 'resource management' language to mask political control.
Material Conditions
Economic Factors: Reform UK's superior campaign financing, Declining public service funding cited by Braverman, Defense spending cuts affecting military personnel, Resource constraints shaping Labour's electoral strategy
The article reveals politics as a specialized labor process where career politicians are the workers, but one divorced from productive activity. Campaign resources—money, volunteers, data—become means of political production controlled by party apparatuses rather than members or constituents.
Resources at Stake: Parliamentary seats as access to state power, Party membership bases as organizational resources, Media attention as political capital, Greater Manchester mayoralty as administrative power
Historical Context
Precedents: 1930s realignment when Labour displaced Liberals as main opposition, SDP split from Labour in 1981, UKIP's rise pressuring Tory rightward shift, Post-2008 austerity politics fragmenting traditional party loyalties
This represents a familiar pattern in capitalist democracies: when traditional parties fail to manage economic contradictions, new formations emerge to redirect discontent. Reform UK follows the template of right-populist parties across Europe, absorbing establishment figures to gain credibility while channeling working-class anger toward nationalist rather than class-based politics. The simultaneous Labour crisis reflects social democracy's perennial contradiction between managing capitalism and representing workers.
Contradictions
Primary: The fundamental contradiction between Reform UK's rhetoric of representing 'ordinary people' against elites while recruiting failed establishment politicians who implemented the policies they now criticize
Secondary: Labour claiming democratic values while bureaucratically blocking member choices, Braverman criticizing 'broken Britain' while having held power responsible for it, Veterans invoked for political purposes while their material conditions go unaddressed, Reform's nationalism requiring scapegoats (ECHR, immigrants) rather than confronting capital
These contradictions are unlikely to resolve cleanly. Reform UK may achieve short-term gains by consolidating right-wing voters, but its internal tension between nationalist rhetoric and capitalist reality will eventually surface. Labour's contradiction between party management and democratic legitimacy will likely intensify, potentially producing further splits or a reform movement. The deeper resolution requires political formations that can articulate class interests rather than managing capitalist contradictions.
Global Interconnections
Britain's political fragmentation mirrors patterns across the capitalist core: traditional center-left and center-right parties losing legitimacy as neoliberalism fails to deliver broadly shared prosperity. Reform UK's rise parallels similar formations in France (Rassemblement National), Germany (AfD), and Italy (Fratelli d'Italia)—nationalist parties absorbing mainstream right figures while redirecting working-class frustration toward immigration and supranational institutions rather than capital. The ECHR focus is particularly revealing: rather than challenging the material conditions producing veteran poverty or public service collapse, Braverman and Farage target international human rights frameworks. This follows a familiar imperialist pattern where domestic contradictions are externalized onto foreign institutions, preserving domestic class relations while channeling discontent outward.
Conclusion
The parallel crises in Conservative and Labour parties reveal British capitalism's political management problem rather than meaningful alternatives. For workers, neither Reform UK's nationalism nor Labour's technocratic managerialism addresses material conditions—wages, housing, healthcare, working conditions. The task remains building political capacity that can articulate class interests against capital, rather than choosing between different managers of decline. The Gorton and Denton byelection, whatever its outcome, will likely demonstrate the limits of existing political options rather than opening new possibilities—unless organized labor and social movements can intervene with class-conscious alternatives.
Suggested Reading
- The State and Revolution by V.I. Lenin (1917) Lenin's analysis of the capitalist state as fundamentally serving ruling-class interests illuminates why party defections and internal conflicts rarely challenge the system's foundations—they represent competing strategies for managing the same class state.
- Prison Notebooks (Selections) by Antonio Gramsci (1935) Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and the role of political parties in maintaining bourgeois rule help explain how Reform UK's 'populism' and Labour's 'pragmatism' both function to contain working-class political expression within capitalist parameters.
- Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg (1900) Luxemburg's critique of reformism speaks directly to Labour's contradictions—how social democratic parties become trapped between representing workers and managing capitalism, ultimately serving the latter.