KEMI Badenoch has hit back at calls for a Tory-Reform pact – insisting she is the “best person” to lead the Conservatives and won’t strike any deal with Nigel Farage’s party.
The Tory leader brushed off a poll showing nearly two-thirds of party members back an electoral pact with Reform.
Kemi Badenoch speaking at Tory party conference in Manchester[/caption]
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage[/caption]
It comes as Mr Farage’s party boasted of fresh defections by councillors, while some senior MPs are urging her to unite the right.
Shadow foreign minister Andrew Rosindell said a pact could prevent the “calamity” of another Labour government.
But speaking at party conference in Manchester, Ms Badenoch said: “I’m not splitting the right. There is no deal to be done with Reform.
“They want to increase welfare. This conference is about living within our means. That’s how we get a stronger economy. They want to nationalise.
“What kind of alliance are we having with them?
“The only thing that they have in common with us, really, is around immigration. We know that we need stronger borders, but we’ve got a plan that will work.
“Their plan, which was copied from some announcements, I think, that we made previously – they hadn’t done the details behind it.”
The same YouGov poll also found half of Tory members think she should not lead the party into the next election – and 64 per cent back a deal with Reform.
But the Tory chief defiantly said: “We need to turn our country around, and we’re the only party that can deliver that stronger economy and stronger borders that this conference is about.
‘If I thought someone else could do it, then I’d be taking a step back.
“I think that I’m the right person and I’m the best person.’
The Tory leader also told the BBC that party members had been “thrilled” with the policies put forward at the annual gathering in Manchester, including leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and slashing £47 billion in public spending.
And she denied claims that the conference lacked the energy and attendance figures of previous years, saying she had been singing Sweet Caroline with “really excited” young Conservatives late on Monday.
She said: “I think that we’ve been having a very good conference. It was a tough defeat that we had at the last election but we are showing people the direction that I’m taking the party.”
This year’s conference has been slimmed down compared to previous years, with fewer stands in the exhibition centre and the main conference hall often half empty for speeches by shadow cabinet ministers.
Ms Badenoch insisted this was not a problem, saying: “A lot of the people who came just because we were in government, the corporate lobbyists, yes, they’re not there, but our members are here.
“This is one of the first conferences I’ve been to where it has really felt like the members owned it, and I’m really proud of that.”
