The Tories faced a difficult election campaign and things aren’t much improving for the party. Now it transpires that Kemi Badenoch used the group’s first shadow cabinet meeting to hit out at ex-PM Rishi Sunak, describing his decision to call an early election as bordering on ‘unconstitutional’. Talk about trouble in paradise…
The shadow housing secretary slammed Sunak for telling an inner circle of the snap election before he informed his cabinet of the plans, blasting his former aide Craig Williams as a ‘buffoon’. And Badenoch didn’t stop there. Going on, the shadow cabinet minister spoke of the former prime minister’s ‘disastrous’ decision to leave D-day commemorations early, blaming Sunak’s choices for the unsuccessful elections of former MPs like Penny Mordaunt. The Tory leadership hopeful turned her attention to other colleagues too – commenting that former home secretary Suella Braverman seemed to be having a ‘very public’ nervous breakdown. Ouch.
While it is thought Badenoch was speaking on behalf of colleagues who lost their seats, the Times reports that not everyone was thrilled by her intervention. James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, has warned his party not to descend into ‘bitter in-fighting and finger-pointing’, adding:
In recent years we lost our well-deserved reputation for competence and good government. We were too often preoccupied with infighting. We were too often divided. Our standards slipped and with it went our focus on delivery. That cannot happen again. The British people deserve better. We must now rediscover that competence to become an effective opposition and give ourselves the best possible chance of returning to government at the next election.
Strong stuff. As Sunak prepares to step down as Tory leader, a number of his colleagues are considering making their own bids. No one has officially announced yet, but already things haven’t got off to the most amicable start. Braverman has already hit out at Robert Jenrick as a ‘big, centrist Rishi supporter’ while Badenoch’s intervention has ruffled feathers. Will a contest continue in this vein? Stay tuned…
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