Nigel Farage’s latest recruit Suella Braverman given approval of ICE institute

Former home secretary Suella Braverman jumped ship to join Reform UK as public records reveal just how much money the The Heritage Foundation paid on a trip for her

Reform defector Suella Braverman has been funded by a think-tank that champions the US border agency linked to fatal shootings.

The former Home Secretary became the latest prominent Conservative to jump ship to Nigel Farage’s party this week. It has also been revealed that she took a complimentary trip valued at over £9,000 from The Heritage Foundation – a backer of the contentious ICE following deadly incidents.

In recent weeks, officers from the US immigration force have fatally shot an ICU nurse and an acclaimed poet, triggering fury. During an interview on Tuesday (January 27) this week, US President Donald Trump stated his administration was “going to de-escalate a little bit” in Minnesota.

“Bottom line, it was terrible. Both of them were terrible,” the US president said.

On Thursday (January 29), Trump’s border chief Tom Homan revealed that federal immigration officials were crafting a strategy to cut agent numbers in Minnesota, though this hinged on state authorities’ cooperation. This follows the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday (January 24).

Two officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave. The nurse’s death occurred after mother-of-three Renee Good, 37, was gunned down by a federal agent in the same American city earlier this month, triggering nationwide demonstrations across the US.

Within hours of ICE’s most recent fatal shooting, The Heritage Foundation rallied to the agency’s defence, posting on X (formerly known as Twitter): “The problem is NOT ICE or immigration law enforcement. The problem is leftists obstructing ICE, attacking agents, harassing civilians, and rioting-all without legal consequences.

“The problem is elected officials inciting lawlessness. The problem is so-called conservatives who see this and blame ICE.”

The Liberal Democrat deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, expressed her outrage: “This is outrageous and yet more evidence that Farage’s coterie is in cahoots with Trump’s MAGA movement. This staggering sum is proof that Reform is trying to turn Trump’s America into Farage’s Britain.”

A Labour insider also chimed in: “As if Suella’s defection to Reform wasn’t enough, it’s now emerged she accepted a trip worth thousands of pounds from a US think tank pushing hard-line positions that are completely out of step with most people in Britain. Voters are right to ask whose side she’s really on.”

Joe Mulhall, Hope Not Hate’s Director of Research, added his voice to the criticism: “Sadly, it is no surprise that Suella Braverman has accepted funds from the Heritage Foundation. Her own increasingly radical politics, which have seen her defect to Reform UK, align well with much of the output of this infamous US think-tank.

“Braverman was the Home Secretary who described asylum seekers arriving in the UK by boat as an ‘invasion’, adopting and normalising the language of the far right. She’s now in Reform, a party that has called for ‘mass deportations,’ a plan that if enacted would require something akin to a British version of ICE.”

Braverman, who represents Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire, received flights, accommodation and airport transfers worth £9,358.71 from The Heritage Foundation in January last year, according to her register of interests, reports the Mirror. During her trip, she gave the annual Margaret Thatcher Freedom Lecture.

In an X post advertising her address, she mirrored Trump’s language, stating: “Too many people are coming into our country who do not abide by our laws, sign up to our values or respect our culture. In fact, too many wish to do us harm.

“We have all had enough. It’s time to Make Britain Great Again.”

Throughout her address, Braverman hailed The Heritage Foundation as “the brightest beacon of liberty, aspiration, and prosperity for many years” – describing it as a “giant, towering over the policy think tank landscape”. She also declared: “It’s now for us in the UK to look enviously from the outside in from the dog house of international relations.

“As the world seems to be waking up from its woke nightmare, be it the United States, Italy or Argentina, we in the UK have a government that is more anti-freedom, anti-aspiration, anti-hope and anti-opportunity than ever before.

“The contrast couldn’t be starker. As other countries rediscover the keys to economic growth, we in the UK stand on the brink of a recession.”

She claimed the “historic” special relationship between the US and UK was “in tatters” – pointing the finger at the Labour government. Earlier this month, the then-Conservative MP also shared a snap on X alongside the foundation’s Nile Gardiner, a former Thatcher adviser.

The Heritage Foundation outlines its aim as being “to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defence”.

This right-wing think tank was the driving force behind Project 2025, a comprehensive policy blueprint for Trump’s second presidency. The 2023 blueprint, spanning over 900 pages, urged Congress to “fund ICE for at least 20,000 ERO [Enforcement Removal Operations] officers”.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security proudly announced: “After receiving more than 220,000 applications to join ICE from patriotic Americans, ICE blew past its original hiring target of 10,000 new officers and agents within a year. In fact, we have more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000.”

On Sunday (January 25), the Heritage Foundation also posted on social media: “You have the right to peacefully protest. You do not have the right to obstruct law enforcement operations. With certain exceptions, you have the right to carry a firearm.

“You do not have the right to lay hands on law enforcement or resist arrest. If you obstruct law enforcement, lay hands on an officer, or resist arrest while carrying a firearm, you endanger the lives of law enforcement personnel and increase the likelihood of being met with lethal force.

“This isn’t complicated, though some on the Left and the Right with ulterior motives would like it to be.” Come Monday (January 26), after Trump announced he was dispatching his border chief to Minnesota, the organisation shared: “Many on the Right in Congress were jubilant over the weekend at the prospect of ICE operations slowing down and an opportunity for amnesty emerging.

“Their knives are still out, but this is an encouraging blow to their plans. Restore order.

“Deport every illegal alien. Save America.

“That is the mandate. Nothing less.”

The Heritage Foundation previously campaigned for Prince Harry’s US visa documents to be made public through the courts last year. Former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss delivered an address at the Foundation in 2024.

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