Badenoch says Reform defectors ‘some of the most dishonest people I have met’

Tory leader rules out coalition with Farage’s party and says ‘drama queens’ who left will not be welcomed back

Kemi Badenoch has called defectors who left for Reform “some of the most dishonest people” she has ever met, as she ruled out allowing “drama queens” to return to the party.

Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the Conservative party leader again ruled out any prospect of an election deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, insisting there would be no coalition between the parties.

“Reform has people who left the Conservative party, some of the most dishonest people I have ever met in my entire life,” Badenoch told event host Iain Dale on Saturday.

Multiple current or former parliamentarians have joined Reform from the Conservatives, including the former home secretary Suella Braverman and the former shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick. After being sacked by Badenoch for plotting against her, Jenrick called his former party “rotten” and “failed”.

Hitting out at those such as Jenrick who defected, Badenoch said: “These are people who left us when we were at our lowest, many of them the people who caused the problems in the first place and then ran away and pretended they had nothing to do with it. Why should we have them back?”

The Conservative leader said she doesn’t want “drama queens” in the party, adding that she’s not “entertaining” parliamentarians she has heard are having indirect approaches from previous defectors.

Badenoch said Farage’s party “is all over the place” and suggested the party announces a policy and forgets it the following day.

According to the latest Ipsos voting intention poll, 28% of 1,033 adults in Britain surveyed between 30 July and 4 August said they would support Labour. Reform UK had the second highest share with 25% and the Conservatives trailed in third at 18%.

Before becoming prime minister last month, Andy Burnham ruled out the possibility of calling an early general election, with Labour having won a landslide majority in July 2024. The next election must be called by August 2029, though Burnham can decide to hold one at any time before that date.

Badenoch said the country will be in a “pretty bad place” if the Conservatives fail to form the next government at Westminster, saying she would rather have another election if there was a hung parliament than have a “monstrous Reform-Conservative hybrid” government at Westminster.

“How do I work with people like that when I am making carefully curated plans and taking a systems-based approach?” said Badenoch. “How do you work with a man who has fallen out with every single person he has ever had to work with in every single party that he has started?”

While Reform has made substantial gains in Wales and across England in the past year – recent election results that were a catalyst for Keir Starmer’s resignation – Badenoch said she wanted to “win on my own terms” at the next general election.

When asked if not working with Reform could result in a possible Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition should there be a hung parliament, Badenoch insisted again that the best option would be a fresh election.

“If we get a hung parliament and people see that the parties can’t form a government, you have another election,” said the Tory leader, adding that there would be “no deals” made before or after the election.

“I want us to unite the country. It is not about uniting the right, it is about uniting our country,” she said.