With a week to go until polling day, the Tories are stepping up their attacks on Reform. Following Channel 4’s programme on Thursday, the Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has taken to the airwaves. Speaking to Times Radio today he warned that ‘there is a real pattern of racist and misogynistic views’ in Nigel Farage’s pattern and that the conduct of some of their activists is ‘horrific’. And Tugendhat – a Tory Remainer seen as being on the left of the party – is not alone.
For Kemi Badenoch, the centre-right favourite to be the next Conservative leader, has today stepped up her attacks on Farage. The Business Secretary has previously displayed a wariness about engaging with the Reform leader – unlike rivals Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick who would welcome him into the party. And in an interview with the Times, Badenoch goes further, suggesting that Farage does not care about misogyny and racism in his party:
I think that he wants to be talked about again. This is all a big show for him. Nigel Farage doesn’t care if there’s a Labour government. This is I’m a Celebrity for Nigel Farage. He’s done I’m a Celebrity, came third, he wants to see if he can come first or second in politics, which is just another game [to him] but actually this is about people’s lives. I really want Reform voters to know that we’ve heard you. We understand. But you need to come back to the Conservative party.
Badenoch has little time for others in his party too, claiming that Reform’s candidates are often the ‘offcuts, the chaff that other parties have kicked out… It goes well beyond racism, [and] misogyny. It’s people who are not fit to make the decisions about your life. They don’t understand what it’s about. They’ve got no clue.’ Ouch.
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