‘Battle of Waterlooville’ blow for Suella Braverman in Tory contest for new seat

A local Tory councillor ‘fundamentally disagrees’ with Suella Braverman and would ‘struggle’ to campaign for the home secretary

A Tory councillor in Suella Braverman’s new constituency would “struggle” to campaign for the home secretary if she wins the nomination.

Caroline Brook said she “disagrees fundamentally” with Ms Braverman and would find it difficult to knock on doors to get her re-elected.

Ms Braverman is facing fellow Tory Flick Drummond in a party vote to become the party’s candidate for a proposed new constituency, Fareham and Waterlooville.

Constituency boundary changes will see the two Hampshire MPs go head to head in what has been dubbed the Battle of Waterlooville.

But Ms Brook, a Conservative councillor in Winchester, where Ms Braverman is hoping to represent, said she would “struggle” to support her.

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: “I’d struggle. I’d struggle. Yeah, I would, I’d struggle. I disagree fundamentally with her on some of her views.

“I’m sure in time I’d get to know her. And she’d actually pick up the phone and speak to me, which she hasn’t during the whole process.”

One issue on which Ms Brook disagrees with the home secretary is her plans to reduce the number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.

As well as deporting some to Rwanda, the home secretary is planning to house Channel migrants on barges around the UK. Ms Braverman was expected on Wednesday to set out plans to put up more than 500 asylum seekers on a boat off the coast of Dorset.

The proposal has faced opposition from the local Conservative MP Richard Drax as well as the Tory-run Dorset Council. Last month Ms Braverman said her crackdown on small boat crossings would “push the boundaries of international law”.

And Ms Brook, a councillor since 2016, said: “The boat policy, for example, I struggle with the way that’s being implemented.

“I’m not convinced that doing something that is borderline anti-international looking after international people, I fundamentally don’t think that we should border that and go, ‘We think it’s legal’.

“Because that jeopardises our people who live abroad, our residents who live abroad, because if we’re straddling that we think it’s legal it might not quite be, why should they treat our people in their countries fairly? So fundamentally, I disagree on some real key points.”

A number of constituency changes have been proposed across the UK as part of the 2023 boundary review.

The review started in January 2021 and its final recommendations are due to be presented by 1 July this year, with changes expected before the next election.

The Boundary Commission for England has closed its “final consultation” and is considering the feedback received.

Its plans would remove the existing Meon Valley and Fareham constituencies, and the two MPs are competing for the newly proposed constituency.

Ms Braverman has represented the Fareham constituency since 2015. Ms Drummond represented Portsmouth South between 2015 and 2017 and has represented Meon Valley since 2019.

The winner of the nomination is expected to be announced on Wednesday evening.