Kemi Badenoch brands Reform defectors as 'dishonest' while attributing blame for Conservative struggle

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The Tory leader branded defectors as among 'the most dishonest people' she had met

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said former Tory politicians who defected to Nigel Farage’s party should not expect to return to the Conservatives, attributing blame to defectors for the struggles of the party.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Mrs Badenoch launched a fierce attack on Reform and its leader, accusing politicians who had left the Conservatives of being among “the most dishonest people” she had met.

She said she wanted to win the next general election “on my own terms”, and rejected the prospect of a Conservative-Reform alliance, even if the result left Westminster without a clear majority.

Mrs Badenoch said she would prefer another general election over forming what she described as a “monstrous Reform/Conservative hybrid” government.

The Conservative leader said she had heard that some former MPs were making indirect approaches, but said she was “not really entertaining them”.

She criticised politicians who had left the Conservatives while the party was struggling, arguing that some had helped create the problems they later blamed on the party.

"Why should we have them back?” she asked, adding she did not want “drama queens” in the party, and instead wanted MPs who were “serious about delivering for the country”.

She added that allowing politicians to move in and out of the Conservatives would make the party appear “desperate” and lacking in seriousness.

“If we get a hung parliament and people see that the parties can’t form a government, you have another election,” she said.

The Conservative leader also criticised Mr Farage’s political record, arguing that Reform’s policies could change rapidly.

“Nigel Farage dictates what he wants depending on what he had for breakfast that day,” she said, adding that she could not work with a politician who had “fallen out with every single person he has ever had to work with”.

Mrs Badenoch said there would be “no deals before or after” the next election, stressing that her priority was to build a Conservative government, rather than unite the political right.

“It is not about uniting the right, it is about uniting our country,” she said.

It comes after sparks of an alliance between Reform and Rupert Lowe's Restore Britain fizzled out earlier this month, after an olive branch from the latter to the former in the wake of a "Burnham bounce" amounted to no deal being struck.

During her Edinburgh appearance, Mrs Badenoch also turned her attention to Scotland, saying she believed the Conservatives could win back voters who had turned towards the Scottish National Party.

She said she felt “a pull to Scotland”, and argued that many Scots believed Westminster ignored them, leading them to turn to the SNP.

The leader described the relationship between Scotland and the SNP as a “very dysfunctional” one, while insisting that Conservatives could offer an alternative.

Mrs Badenoch also praised Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, saying he “really should be the first minister” and describing him as a politician with “so much integrity”.

She concluded her sentiment by stating the party was determined to keep separate from Reform, while attempting to establish itself as a distinct political force ahead of the next election.