Farage has done my spring cleaning, says Badenoch after Jenrick defection
The Conservative leader said Reform are ‘taking people who are repeatedly sacked from government’.
Kemi Badenoch said Nigel Farage had done her “spring cleaning” after Robert Jenrick joined Reform UK.
Ahead of his defection, Mrs Badenoch had kicked Mr Jenrick off the Tory frontbench and suspended his party membership, citing evidence he was “plotting in secret”.
The Conservative leader said during a visit to Aberdeen on Friday that Mr Jenrick is now “Nigel Farage’s problem” and that he creates “instability” wherever he goes.
“Reform has been taking a lot of people who could not find work elsewhere,” she said.
“They’ve been taking people who are repeatedly sacked from government.
“What I’m saying is that Nigel Farage is doing my spring cleaning.
“The problems are going, we are even more united than we were, because we’re a stronger team… Robert Jenrick was not a team player.”
During the visit to an offshore training centre, she said she could commit to the Conservatives going into the next election alone rather than getting into a pact with Reform.
Mrs Badenoch said: “How do you do a deal with liars? How do you do a deal with people who have been saying things that were clearly not true, not just for months, but clearly for years?”
Asked if any more “spring cleaning” needs to be done in her party’s ranks, she told the Press Association anyone interested in “psychodrama” should go.
“If they’re people who do not belong in our party, who think that it’s all a game and that people’s lives are a game, they just want all this psychodrama, then yes, they should go.
“We don’t want people like that in the Conservative Party.
“They caused all the problems, and now people can see that the Conservative Party is getting its act together.”
But she told Sky News she is “100% confident” no further members of her shadow cabinet will defect.
