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.”
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”