Suella Braverman named Reform UK’s skills spokesperson

Former Conservative home secretary and recently-defected Reform UK MP Suella Braverman has been named as the party’s education and skills spokesperson.

Leader Nigel Farage today announced his “shadow cabinet”, with Braverman given the education, skills and equalities brief.

Braverman defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK last month, claiming she had been “politically homeless” for the past two years.

Farage claimed at a press conference earlier today that parents “all over this country are in a state of despair about what their children are being taught at school”.

Braverman served as home secretary twice. She was initially appointed to the role in September 2022 by Liz Truss, but resigned in October 2022 after she sent an official document to a parliamentary colleague using her personal email address.

She was re-appointed by new prime minister Rishi Sunak days later, but then sacked in a 2023 reshuffle.

Before Parliament, Braverman worked as a lawyer and was co-founder and chair of governors at Michaela Community School, known for its strict behaviour policies, high progress 8 scores and outspoken headteacher, Katharine Birbalsingh.

Speaking to the press earlier today, Braverman claimed a “quiet crisis has taken hold” across schools, with the authority of teachers being “eroded” by “violence and disorder”.

Trades target

Farage, who said skills has “been ignored for too long”, announced Braverman’s appointment alongside spokespeople covering business, home affairs and the treasury.

Braverman said universities are “failing our young people”.

“Today, 700,000 graduates are unemployed, each of them carrying, on average, £50,000 worth of student debt. The truth is that too many of our young people have been sold a lie about university, wasting three years of their lives on Mickey Mouse courses, all while we have a chronic shortage of nurses, builders and care workers.

“So I tell you what we need. Instead of Tony Blair’s 50 per cent of young people going to university, this is what we need. We need Nigel Farage’s [target] 50 per cent of young people going into trades.”

“That’s what will produce the next generation of carpenters, electricians that our contry is crying out for. All to work in a thriving manufacturing sector.

“These are noble professions, and these will be the people who rebuild Britain. And to those universities that have descended into hotbeds of cancel culture, antisemitism and which survive thanks to the case foreign students and keep conning young people into worthless degrees, Reform is putting you on notice.”

Fellow recent defector Robert Jenrick was announced as Reform UK’s pick for chancellor if the party wins the next general election, while former education secretary Nadim Zahawi has not been given a position.