Kemi Badenoch hits back at Nigel Farage and takes swipe at Keir Starmer's 'woman problem' with Rachel Reeves
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Kemi Badenoch rebuffed calls for the Tories to merge with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in her first major speech this year. The day after clashing with Sir Keir Starmer in the Commons, she also took a swipe at the Prime Minister and his “woman problem” with Chancellor Rachel Reeves who has faced criticism over her Budget, the soaring cost of Government borrrowing and fall in the Pound.
The Conservative leader admitted mistakes by the last Tory governments over Brexit as she promised if elected by the British public she would “give you your country back,” with echoes of the “take back control” slogan of Leavers. Asked after her speech in London if the Tories under her leadership would merge with Reform, she responded: “Nigel Farage says he wants to destroy the Conservative Party. Why on earth would we merge with that?”.
But she was grilled on her strategy of not announcing new policies as the Tories trail Reform who are now in second place narrowly behind Labour in the polls. “Nigel Farage has been knocking around for 20 plus years. He’s been leading all sorts of different parties, so he has had a head start,” she said.
“I’ve been leading the Conservative Party for 10 weeks. Let’s see where we are in a few months and years.”. She pledged to work with Sir Keir on issues where she believed he was right. Asked if she would support him if he axed Ms Reeves as Chancellor, despite no signs that he is planning to do so, Ms Badenoch said: “If he does the right thing with Rachel Reeves, I will also support him in that, but his ‘woman problem’ is not my concern.”.
