Reform UK is furious at ‘obsessed’ Kemi Badenoch after Nigel Farage issues warning to Tories | Politics news
Conservative leader has no intention of conceding ground to Reform UK on ECHR or net zero (Image: Getty Images)
Reform UK has accused Kemi Badenoch of being “obsessed” with Nigel Farage’s party, as she used a major speech in London to launch a fierce attack on Tory defectors. The Conservative leader slammed former Tories who joined Reform as “drama queens” who were not “serious people.”
The number of Reform MPs has swelled with the arrival of Secretary of State Robert Jenrick, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Romford MP Andrew Rosindale – and a Reform source claimed the Tories are heading for electoral disaster and predicted the Conservatives will “cease to be a national party” after May’s elections.
Mrs Badenoch suggested MPs who left the Conservatives for reform were suffering from sour grapes.
She said, “I’m sorry you didn’t win the leadership contest; I’m sorry you didn’t get a job in the shadow cabinet; I’m sorry you didn’t get into the Lords, but you’re not presenting any plan to fix this country. This is anger dressed up as politics.”
The Tory leader compared the defectors to his own children, saying, “When my children are angry, I don’t give up or change my mind; I send them to their room.”
She declared that she “leads a party of serious people, not drama queens”.
Read more: ‘I was in the room when Kemi Badenoch said the reform turncoats had been got rid of.’
Read more: Meet Matt Goodwin – the seat Andy Burnham wanted as Reform UK candidate
Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are Reform UK’s two biggest turncoats (Image: Smartframe/Zuma Press)
Reform pulls “silly stunts”
Mrs Badenoch made no secret of her frustration with Mr Farage’s party, claiming that “every time our government is in trouble”, Reform pulls “silly stunts”. He accused Reform of “punching us in the back and unshaking Labour” and claimed that the party “doesn’t care whether your son or daughter can get a job”.
A Reform source hit back at the Tories, saying: “The Conservative Party will say anything to attract attention as they slide into obscurity.” After the local elections in May, they will no longer be a national party. Instead of shouting into the wind, Keymmy would be better advised to accept that Britain is broken, issue an apology for the mistakes made by the Tories in government and remove those in his party who were responsible.”
A Reform spokesman said: “Cammy is obsessed with us. As Britain recovers from the damage caused by the Conservatives, she used one of her rare public appearances to attack us – once again. She was a senior minister in one of the governments that delivered record immigration and the highest tax burden in modern British history. Her party is receiving huge support and she is panicking.”
Mrs Badenoch also used her speech to warn against “former politicians” who want her to soften her policies.
Liberal Tories, including former Scottish Conservative leader Baroness Davidson and Sir Andy Street, former mayor of the West Midlands and former Home Secretary, have launched Prosper UK – a campaign group aimed at repositioning the party to the center and reaching out to the “politically homeless”.
Mrs Badenoch said: “If people want a political home that will fix the economy, that will sort out our borders, that will give hope to the next generation, there is a home. It is the Conservative Party.”
Former John Lewis boss Sir Andy Street serves as Mayor of the West Midlands (Image: AFP via Getty Images) )
She made it clear that she would not back down from controversial policies like pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Some people are questioning what kind of Conservative Party I’m running,” she said. “Well, let me tell you. A party that wants stronger borders and has acted to leave the ECHR.”
“A party that wants to prevent our country from going bankrupt by deindustrializing and destroying manufacturing under the guise of net zero. We have done the work and will repeal the Climate Change Act.”
He took aim at former politicians who “deny that the world has changed” and “don’t want to admit that immigration is too high”.
“Global mass migration is a real problem,” he warned. “Some very tough decisions are going to have to be made to fix this.”
Urging a new generation of Conservative candidates to apply to stand in the election, he said, “We are building an army that will deliver merit, dismantle the bureaucratic class and make Britain work again.”
A Labour spokesman said, “The Conservatives are not serious, they are not sorry, and they are busy putting their completely broken party back together.”
However, a Conservative Party adviser was pleased with the response to the speech, saying: “The room was packed, there was standing room only, and the energy was fantastic. The party needed to hear Kemmy’s vision for our country and why Labour and reform are two sides of the wrong coin. Kemmy delivered so much more and MPs, party members and members of the public are responding brilliantly.”
