Suella Braverman has suggested that the UK could become “the first Islamist nation with nuclear weapons”.

The former home secretary said Britain could “fall into the hands of Muslim fundamentalism” and become like Iran.

She made the incendiary comments in a speech to the right-wing Heritage Foundation think-tank in Washington.

Braverman said: “Vice-president JD Vance said at the National Conservatism conference, at which I also spoke in the summer, that the UK was going to be the first Islamist nation with nuclear weapons. I don’t think he was joking.

“Is it an impossibility that 20 years from now it will be the UK, not China or Russia, that will emerge as the greatest strategic threat to the USA?

“Born out of a broken relationship and weak leadership. What happens if the UK falls into the hands of Muslim fundamentalism, our legal system gets substituted for Sharia Law and our nuclear capabilities vest in a regime not too dissimilar to that of Iran today?

“Regardless of whether one thinks that is a realistic outcome, which I do not, should we not have the courage to ask these questions?”