Over the past few months, Reform UK and its politicians have embroiled themselves in a never-ending series of scandals. With their polling simultaneously dipping and rumours that Nigel Farage could walk away, this has predictably led to infighting among the party’s bigwigs. The latest development on that front has been the suggestion that ex-Tory Suella Braverman is apparently on ‘resignation watch’:
Apparently – i.e the Sun’s Harry Cole has said – there is friction among senior Reform figures (golly gosh!), placing Braverman on ‘resignation watch’.https://t.co/bNImKuVQyX https://t.co/L7nmxFY39i
— Moyra Grant (@moyra_grant) August 23, 2026
Braverman has now denied she’s on the verge of quitting. Some have taken this as confirmation the media is making up stories; others have shrugged at her denials and said: ‘well she would say that, wouldn’t she?‘
Suella Braverman on resignation watch
The suggestion that Braverman is considering her position came from longtime Sun journalist and editor Harry Cole. If the name ‘Harry Cole’ rings a bell, you’re no doubt remembering him as the man who said this (as immortalised by the WayBack Machine):
According to Cole, Reform insiders told him that Braverman is so obviously unhappy in her position that the party is closely watching. The worry, apparently, is that she could quit at any moment. She presumably can’t defect, however, as the Tories’ Kemi Badenoch described her as follows:
Badenoch says Reform defectors ‘some of the most dishonest people I have met’ https://t.co/nO4tQ3OgUW
— Reform UK Exposed
(@reformexposed) August 23, 2026
She also couldn’t defect to Restore Britain, because the party is full of hardcore white supremacists who wouldn’t tolerate a Person of Colour dictating their political direction.
Braverman herself has denied the accusations, putting the following to Cole:
The piece is literally calling for an end to division…….
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) August 22, 2026
Cole would later ask Braverman to clarify what specifically she was denying. Braverman replied:
What you’ve written about me is categorically wrong. I’m setting the record straight.
And you didn’t check with me before you wrote it- which is a real shame as I would have corrected you.
If Reform insiders are quietly watching Suella Braverman without her knowledge, she isn’t in a position to deny that. She could deny she’s unhappy, obviously, which is presumably what she’s doing. This still doesn’t rule out the possibility she seems unhappy enough to warrant observation, though; it also doesn’t rule out the possibility that she’s lying.
Trouble brewing
Of course, it’s entirely possible that Cole made the story up; that or the person feeding him the gossip was doing so with an agenda. As commentator Dan Hodges noted, though:
By my reckoning in the past week senior Reform figures have claimed journalists from the Spectator, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Sun, the Times and the I Paper have all independently invented broadly the same stories about internal infighting within the party…
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) August 22, 2026
Many have noted that Cole is sympathetic to Reform UK and its agenda. At the same time, Cole is one of Rupert Murdoch’s longest-serving lackeys, and the Murdoch press has been hammering Reform recently. Most obviously, this has materialised via the Times’ investigative reports into Reform’s various donation scandals.
While this reporting does seem to be genuine and worthy, the notable thing is that much of it is stuff we’ve broadly known for years – i.e. that for whatever reason, the Times has just now deemed it worthy of coverage. Many speculate this is because Reform and its politicians have shown they lack the ability to effectively manage decline as the Tories did. The risk is that if things deteriorate too quickly, people may rise up and overthrow the capitalist class – the class which has profited from this managed decline, and which includes people like Rupert Murdoch.
Regardless of what’s happening, anyway, we’re more than happy to sit back and watch these two sides tear chunks out of one another.
Featured image via Bridport News
By Willem Moore
From Canary via This RSS Feed.