Conservative MP Suella Braverman is expected to quit the the party and join Nigel Farage’s Reform UK later this year, according to sources in both parties.

The right-wing former home secretary is struggling to command enough support to run for the Tory leadership when the race officially kicks off next week, after key allies abandoned her fledgling campaign.

She may even face the ignominy of failing to secure the numbers to get on the ballot paper as support within the parliamentary party leeches away to other right-wing candidates.

“We expect her to take a tilt at the Tory leadership and then come over to us, perhaps in the autumn around conference time,” a Reform source said. “She’ll fit in well.”

A senior Tory source told i: “There’s now so much antagonism towards Suella Braverman among MPs that there is now a generally held view that she will defect.

“If she does, it will be a clear admission that she could not win the leadership and does not have the support of any MPs in the party.” Ms Braverman, MP for Fareham and Waterlooville, denied the claim. A spokesman said: “Suella has only recently been elected as a Conservative MP and has been a Conservative Party member for three decades.”

Previously she has argued the Conservatives “need to” find a way of working with Reform, saying she would “welcome” Farage into the party, a stance other Tories view with disdain.

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