Kemi Badenoch clashed with a TV interviewer tonight over the amount of questions she was being asked about Nigel Farage.
Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch said she was ‘not interested’ in talking about her Reform counterpart and wanted to discuss the Tories, in a blunt response to Sky News.
She refused to give an answer when asked if she admired Mr Farage, a question interviewer Beth Rigby also put to Sir Keir Starmer last week.
Mrs Badenoch told Sky it was odd she was not being asked if she also admired Sir Keir or Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey.
‘You tell me that people aren’t interested in me. I’m on your show,’ she told Ms Rigby.
‘Ask me about what I think. You spent most of the interview asking about Reform. Reforms already had their conference, Beth…’
When the journalist intervened to ask if the question made her ‘cross …. you seem irritated’, Mrs Badenoch replied: ‘No, it isn’t. I just think that your viewers want to know what I am offering. I’m not offering Nigel. I’m offering authentic Conservatism.’
It came as the poll lead of Reform threatened to overshadow the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this week.
Mrs Badenoch and other frontbenchers have been forced to rule out an electoral pact after the idea was floated by shadow foreign office minister Andrew Rosindell.
A YouGov poll published on Monday suggested that half of Tory members thought Mrs Badenoch was the wrong person to lead the party into the next general election.
Conservative leader Mrs Badenoch said she was ‘not interested’ in talking about her reform counterpart in a blunt response to Sky News.
She refused to give an answer when asked if she admired Mr Farage, a question interviewer Beth Rigby also put to Sir Keir Starmer last week.
A YouGov survey found half of Conservative members thought Kemi Badenoch should not lead the party into the next general election
When Ms Rigby put the question to Sir Keir he branded Mr Farage a ‘formidable opponent, but added: ‘Fundamentally what I don’t admire is what he stands for, because I don’t think he stands for the Britain that I know and I love.’
Mrs Badenoch also used the interview today in Manchester to suggest Reform is ‘not the party of the right’, despite 20 councillors today following several MPs and ex-MPs who defected from the Tories in recent weeks.
Asked about the possibility of an electoral pact she said: ‘They want more welfare spending, they want nationalisation … those are not policies that we support.
‘How can you vote Conservative and get nationalisation?’
Reform unveiled the wave defections on Tuesday, the eve of the Conservative annual conference finale in Manchester where Mrs Badenoch will make a closing speech.
The boost to Reform UK’s ranks in town halls throughout the country follows several wins in the May elections earlier this year.
Reform UK secured 677 seats at the local elections in May and took over several formerly Conservative-controlled authorities including Derbyshire, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and West Northamptonshire.
The party also gained Doncaster from Labour.
East Wiltshire MP Danny Kruger left the Conservatives last month to join Reform.
Mrs Badenoch today suggested the defectors mettle, with her party needing backers who are not going to ‘jump into whatever lifeboat they think is passing by’.
The Conservative leader said she was ‘sorry to lose’ supporters as she embarks on a ‘long, difficult journey’ in Opposition.
But she told ITV News: ‘People who jump around because they’re jumping around polls are not people who can deal with tough times.
‘If they cannot deal with tough times in opposition, how are they going to deal with tough times in government?’
