Suella Braverman has said Nigel Farage “should be welcomed” by the Conservative Party. The former home secretary told The Times the Tories are a “broad church” and shouldn’t exclude anyone who wants “Conservatives to get elected”.

Her comments come days after a poll suggested Mr Farage, who leads Reform UK, is the most popular option to succeed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservatives if Labour wins the General Election.

Ms Braverman told The Times: “We need to, in the future, to find some way to work together because there shouldn’t be big differences between us. I would welcome Nigel into the Conservative Party. There’s not much difference really between him and many of the policies that we stand for.”

A poll by Redfield and Wilton, conducted for The Independent, surveyed 2,000 adults last Wednesday and Thursday. It showed 19 percent of people think Mr Farage should take over from Mr Sunak, with 22 percent of 2019 Conservative voters surveyed agreeing.

The poll offered six other names – Penny Mordaunt (15 percent), James Cleverly (six percent), Kemi Badenoch (five percent), Suella Braverman (four percent), Priti Patel (two percent) and Robert Jenrick (one percent).

To add to the worrying polls for the Tories, 37 percent of people surveyed said the Reform UK party should replace the Conservatives as the major opposition to Labour, with 30 percent disagreeing.

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