Kemi Badenoch rules out ‘pact’ with Reform UK after Conservative voters warned her they would be ‘done’ if Tories ‘got into bed’ with Nigel Farage’s party_Nhy
Kemi Badenoch yesterday ruled out doing a pact with Reform UK before the next election.
The Tory leader insisted that Conservative voters have warned her that ‘we are done with your party’ if she ‘gets into bed’ with Nigel Farage’s insurgent party.
Taking aim at Reform, she also accused it of making unfunded spending promises at last year’s election that were ‘even more unrealistic’ than Liz Truss’s ill-fated 2022 mini-Budget which sparked economic turmoil.
It comes after Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart left the door open for a future merger or electoral pact, repeatedly refusing to rule one out in future on Sunday during a round of broadcast interviews.
Several polls have put Reform ahead of the Tories but have found that both parties could see off Labour if they merged.
But asked if she could see ‘any circumstances’ in which a pact with Reform was possible before the next election, Ms Badenoch shut it down.
She told the Daily Telegraph’s Daily T podcast: ‘Nigel Farage has said that he wants to destroy the Conservative Party.
‘So I’m not…I have been given something very precious. I am the custodian of an institution that has existed for nigh on 200 years…I have to look after this thing. I can’t just treat it like it’s a toy and have pacts and mergers.
Kemi Badenoch (pictured in the Commons) insisted that Conservative voters have warned her that ‘we are done with your party’ if she ‘gets into bed’ with Nigel Farage ’s insurgent party
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart left the door open for a future merger or electoral pact with Nigel Farage’s party (pictured)
‘There are hundreds of thousands of Conservative party members who’ve put their trust in me, they have to, and I have to look after all of those people, as well as a lot of our electorate, who even this weekend, you knock on their doors, they tell me “if you go into bed with Farage – heaven forbid the image – we are done with your party”.’
She added: ‘So if what you’re asking me is, will I have some kind of agreement with Nigel Farage before the election, no, because I need to make sure people know who we are, what we stand for, that we are credible, that we have got their trust back and that we can deliver a plan that will work [at the next election].’
Taking aim at Reform’s policies, she added: ‘Reform is offering a pastiche of something that has gone…but we saw a budget where Liz Truss was actually trying to do something quite minor to what was in the Reform manifesto and it didn’t quite work.’
She also suggested that May’s local elections, the first Reform are standing in, will be a bloodbath for the party.
Many of the seats up for grabs were last contested when Boris Johnson was in power and the party was riding a wave of popularity under him.
She said: ‘These are going to be extremely difficult local elections. Not just because four years ago we were at a high watermark, but because of the result in July 2024 [election].
‘If we had those results now, we would lose all but one council that we control.’
