Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has launched a new attack on Reform UK’s Suella Braverman, claiming that she underperforming prior to her defection to Reform UK.
Asked about antisemitism on The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News, she said: “We need to call it out and stop pretending it was just far-left, far-right. Yes, there’s a lot of Islamic extremism that is behind this. There is also a lot of hard left ideology that has constantly been chasing Jewish people, using all of these antisemitic tropes about capitalism and billionaires and then you see them smashing up Jewish businesses, or even the ones that merely have a link with Israel, like Gail’s.
“We’ve just have to draw a line under that. This stuff started in 2023. I’m not going to hear anything from Suella. I sat in meetings where she could have said stuff that she didn’t. She spent a lot more time writing articles in The Telegraph than she did actually doing the job.”
Badenoch also claimed Nigel Farage is taking voters for granted: “He just tells people what they want to hear. And also, voters are not tradable pawns – ‘Well, we’ve got these ones, and you’ve got those ones’. That’s not how you treat people.
“I know that the best thing for this country is not Reform. That’s why I’m not doing the deal. They are not going to be good for the country. Just because they are saying some things that we might agree with on immigration doesn’t mean that they will be good.
“I have to do what is right. The fact is, there are as many people who would stop supporting the Conservatives as there are people who might say yes, if they thought we were doing a deal with Reform.
“We need to stop talking about deals all the time. It’s just people planning stitch-ups.”
She added: “What people are telling me is that they want to see a Conservative Party that has clear policies and that has shown it has changed. We have changed. I’ve changed this party, and I’m going to keep changing it.
“We’re going in a new direction. There’s a new leader. We’ve junked all the rubbish policies which caused us problems, much tougher policies on immigration. And unlike Nigel Farage, I actually have a plan. He’s just coming out and saying, we’ll do it.
“We’ve laid out a borders plan. We have a 200-page document, a legal document, that explains how it is we’re going to do it, and why we need to do it. He’s just performing. Zack Polanski is doing protest. Farage is performing.
“We have plans. We are serious. When it is time for a general election, people are going to think, who is ready? I’ve got a team that I like. We are united. We’ve got good plans, a lot more good stuff to come.”
On the Prime Minister’s pledge to crack down on antisemitic chanting during public protests, Badenoch said: “I said this at the dispatch box when I was Business Secretary, that these people are using these marches as a cover for antisemitism, chanting these sorts of slogans. Do you remember they were ripping up pictures of baby hostages?
“This was all about Jewish hatred, and I think the time has come for us to put a moratorium on it, because you know when these things pretend to be protests, when they’re actually something else. We need to do something about it.”
