Badenoch said this morning:
“Let’s see what kind of campaign Count Binface runs, and who the establishment really is – if it’s the people versus the establishment, I think Nigel Farage might be looking like the establishment, and Count Binface may be the people. So the whole thing is a farce.”
Asked if she would vote for him, Badenoch said she would be on a beach. Asked for whom the people of Clacton should vote, she declined to again endorse Binface: “The people of Clacton, and the Conservatives in particular, are very sensible – they will do what they know to be right. It’s not for me to be getting involved in that.” It‘s yet to be seen if Tory staffers will go to Clacton to campaign for the bin…
CCHQ has also launched a Farage vs. Binface live poll website to do some data harvesting. Including some AI visuals…
From Tim Shipman’s interview with the Tory leader, out this morning:
“Badenoch says the Tories could win and claims there is a ‘high chance’ she will become prime minister. But asked explicitly whether she would be prepared to put Farage into No. 10 if he fell short of a majority, she made it clear the answer is yes: ‘This country cannot have another left-wing government.’
She ruled out standing down candidates or an arrangement to target resources so the two parties could focus on different seats, however. ‘We don’t need to do a pact… deals, non-aggression pacts. These things end up falling apart anyway.’ Instead, Badenoch implied she would accept a confidence and supply deal to ‘deliver a conservative agenda’.”
Badenoch also praised Restore Britain’s Rupert Lowe:
“She admitted she already has a casual arrangement with Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, who took a Tory seat on the public accounts committee. ‘Rupert Lowe wants to cut spending in a way that Nigel Farage doesn’t,’ she explains. ‘Reform has quite a lot of left-wing ideas. They want more benefits. They want more nationalisation. They want the big state. They just want to be in charge of it.’ Asked if she would accept Lowe as a Tory one day, she says: ‘I don’t think I would go that far.’ But she adds: ‘I respect the fact that he turns up for work, which Nigel Farage doesn’t do. He does policy. He doesn’t run away.’”
A bit of trolling there to go with quite a serious public signal…
UPDATE: The copy on the Spectator article has changed to this:
“But asked explicitly whether she would be prepared to put Farage into No. 10 if he fell short of a majority, she made it clear the answer is likely yes, as long as he pursues conservative policies: ‘This country cannot have another left-wing government. This is the most left-wing parliament we have ever had.’”
Tory Party sources insist people look at the transcript. Co-conspirators can make up their own minds:
UPDATE II: Kemi Badenoch says: “This is bullshit.”
UPDATE III: Michael Gove, Spectator editor, has said the bit “doesn’t reflect what Kemi Badenoch actually said… worth listening to the full – great – interview!”
Tim Shipman, who wrote the piece, goes for Kemi:
“Kemi Badenoch has conveniently cut the question I asked her, which was directly relating to propping up Reform AFTER an election as an alternative to Labour plus some crazy lefties.
That’s when she said there must never be another left wing govt.
Her ‘no, no, no…’ answer was about pacts BEFORE an election. It did not follow on directly.
Yes, she says Reform has some left-wing policies, but she made totally clear she would work with a party pursuing a ‘conservative’ agenda, which is clearly what Reform is mostly advocating.
The proof is that she says she is already in a casual arrangement with Rupert Lowe. The lady doth protest too much. It was very clear in the room what I was asking
NO ONE, me or her, was talking about a coalition.”
Badenoch has wrapped up her speech. A quick recap…
Badenoch will promise to scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty altogether, arguing it has become a legal minefield used to push “dangerous and divisive agendas“. Watch along live by clicking the video above…
UPDATE:
Badenoch: “I have spent my political career fighting against identity politics on the left when it came from Labour, LibDems, the SNP, and I will do exactly the same against identity politics when it comes from Reform UK… Reform’s plan to abolish the Equality Act would make it legal to discriminate against white people.”
The Tories have accused Robert Jenrick of being responsible for air con regulations that were actually published by Michael Gove and Kemi Badenoch. Slipping on the banana peel slightly…
A press release went out overnight:
“Today, the Conservative Party have pledged to reverse the Net Zero ban on air con in new homes, as the latest heatwave leaves families suffering unnecessarily… the Conservatives pledge to overturn this ban devised by Robert Jenrick as Housing Secretary and entrenched in London by Sadiq Khan.”
The Tories say “the legal foundation is Approved Document O of the Building Regulations. This document was consulted on and devised in January 2021.” That document was actually signed off and published in December 2021 – three months after Jenrick had left – when Michael Gove was the new Housing Secretary. And Kemi Badenoch was his second-in-command…
That of course means they could have stopped the regulations. There is footage of Jenrick backing the regulations – in formulation – in the Commons…
The Telegraph, Times, and Express wrote up the Tory release practically verbatim and are now issuing corrections and removing references to Jenrick. Quick rubber job…
A Reform source said:
“Kemi has accidentally caught her handler, Michael Gove, in friendly fire.”
Everyone needs to cool off by the looks of it…
UPDATE: Gove responds: “I am very fond of Robert Jenrick but context here helps. The policy was developed and consulted on by Rob. It was signed off by the Minister appointed under Rob. Kemi and others brought its defects to my attention. I ordered the whole thing scrapped but then GE was called…”
Some intriguing moves taking place in local politics while Westminster waits for the next developments in the Rickety Coup. The Tories have found a new partner in crime…
Over at Worcestershire County Council the Reform Party’s minority administration has been booted out of power this morning after 12 months because Tory councillors formed a rival coalition with the Greens, LibDems and independents. A rainbow coalition no one was expecting…
Green councillor Matt Jenkins will now lead the council after attempts by Reform’s Alan Amos to stay in control failed. Is this a CCHQ-sanctioned move…
UPDATE: Tories say: “The Conservative Group Leader did not make our opposition clear to his fellow Worcestershire councillors and has been suspended pending investigation.”
Statement by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers Limited, following Harry’s loss in court today:
“Prince Harry wrote a sad book which boasted about his killing of 25 Taliban, his drug-taking and, in cringe-making detail, how he lost his virginity. There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family. For him, to complain about HIS privacy being invaded takes, not just the biscuit, but the whole tin. Poor Harry. I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case. The bitter irony is that his mother, Diana, liked the Mail. We were her paper. We took her side in her acrimonious break up with Charles. She and I would speak and meet. The Mail’s superb royal reporter was her friend and confidante. The truth is that this trumped-up action – which has cost well over £50 million and wasted a huge amount of valuable court time – should never have been brought to trial. That it did, raises profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession. Today’s verdict is not just a victory for Associated’s magnificent journalists – several of whom have had a terrible toll imposed on their health and lives – but a free press generally. Make no mistake. This was a conspiracy, supported by Hacked Off, to destroy a paper. Financed by the orgy-loving, racist Max Mosley and involving the actor Hugh Grant, it was also a sinister bid to resuscitate Leveson Two and impose statutory regulation on the press which, even now, is rearing its ugly head in Labour’s Media Green Paper.”