Kemi Badenoch scolded for ‘insulting’ attack on ex-Tories after lashing out at Reform defectors

Mrs Badenochused the press conference as an opportunity to bash the three Reform UK defectors, branding them “drama queens”.

Directly attacking Mrs Braverman, Mr Jenrick, and Mr Zahawi she swiped: “To those who are defecting, who don’t actually disagree with our policies, I will say, 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 are not offering a plan to fix this country. This is a tantrum dressed up as politics.”

Reacting to the speech, Mr Parry told GB News: “I think she had a lot to say actually, because more and more in publications and talking to people in the political circles, there’s this panic that the right aren’t going to unite before the May elections and before the next election.

“So you’d think that if she thought there is a way forward by making a relationship with Reform, we would now be hearing about it in her public speeches, but we’re not.”

Criticising her attack on Reform UK’s latest defectors, he added: “She was quite insulting to those who’ve left her. About Suella Braverman, she said ‘serious people, not drama queens’ – about Robert Jenrick, she talked about him doing things on TV.

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“So she’s actually leaving no ground at all for those people that have left. Talking about tantrums dressed up as politics – she’s staying incredibly rigid and firm, in my view, that she’s changing the Tory party, and it is the place for serious people to come.”

Noting her attack on the latest centre-right movement Prosper UK, Mr Parry argued: “And then, of course, she lashed out at this new lot, Prosper UK, who’s made up of people as irrelevant as Ken Clarke.

“Which was to make it absolutely clear, in her mind, there’s only one place to come if you follow Tory values, if you follow the Thatcherite plan, come to her. I thought she was very clear, very clear.”

Offering his verdict on Mrs Badenoch’s speech, former Labour MP Stephen Pound said: “Isn’t it very interesting, the first impression I got from listening to that and yes, she was punchy, no question about that. But exactly everything she said in the first 10 minutes is exactly what Keir Starmer said.

“The grown ups are back in the room, we’re now serious, no more psychodrama. And the other thing was that she was very, very good at actually attacking, but when it actually came to policies, there wasn’t a huge amount. Everything she did enumerate as policies could have been actually said by Nigel Farage.”

Disagreeing, Mr Parry hit back: “I don’t agree with that, because when Starmer and Labour were giving it all ‘the adults back in the room’ and ‘change, change, change’, what we’ve seen is they were not the adults in the room, and the change was for the worse, not for the better.

“I have more faith than the way she delivers it, than the way Keir Starmer tried to.”

He added: “She’s got policies of value. I never thought Starmer had a single policy of value at all. I never believed a word he said.

“Look at his history and what he tried to deliver, and look at Kemi Badenoch’s history and see which of those you would believe to deliver.”

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Mr Pound responded: “Mike, you’re almost like a politician the way you’re deflecting. What I’m saying is that her pitch at the beginning was exactly the same pitch as Keir Starmer, which slightly worries me.

“But the other interesting thing is, what did she say that Nigel Farage wouldn’t agree with?”

Calling for a “merger” between the Tories and Reform, Mr Parry concluded: “In my view, Reform have got the momentum, and they’ve got the opinion polls.

“What the Tories have got is that the oldest political party in the world, they’ve got a blueprint, they’ve got a framework. They know how to go into politics and into elections, and I think the two talents should be merged.”