Kemi Badenoch has ruled out any electoral pact with Reform UK, describing the idea as “stone-dead” after the party’s poor showing in Thursday’s byelections. In an article for the Mail on Sunday, the Conservative leader also attacked Nigel Farage over the £5m gift he received before the general election from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire.
Badenoch questioned Farage’s acceptance of the money, which was first revealed by the Guardian in April. Farage has since changed his explanation for the gift, initially saying it was to fund personal security for life, then claiming it was a reward for his Brexit campaigning. The gift is now being investigated by the parliamentary standards commissioner to determine whether it should have been declared.
Writing about the affair, Badenoch said: “Character matters in politics because character is what is tested when things get tough. Do you have the strength to face down your own backbenchers on wasteful welfare spending? Keir Starmer did not. He failed that test. And what kind of character accepts £5m in cash and says it was merely a gift? Mail on Sunday readers have far too much common sense to believe that. Nobody gets £5m in their pocket for nothing, whatever Nigel Farage claims.”
In the byelections, Labour’s Andy Burnham secured a decisive victory in Makerfield with a majority of more than 9,000 over Reform’s Robert Kenyon and over 50% of the vote. The result has fuelled expectations of a Labour leadership challenge, with Keir Starmer reportedly set to announce his departure as prime minister on Monday. In Aberdeen South, the Scottish Conservatives defeated the SNP, while Reform finished a distant third.
Badenoch said the results justified her refusal to consider a pact with Reform, whom she accused of being “dress like Thatcherites but act like Corbynites”. She dismissed pressure to “unite the right”, saying: “Had I listened, our emphatic victory in Aberdeen would have been diminished. People would have sneered that we won only because Reform stepped aside. A win ‘helped’ by Reform would have been no real win at all.” She added: “We are not the same, and voters are not ours to trade like football cards.”
A Reform UK spokesperson responded: “We won’t need to ever deal with the Tories. They broke Britain and we won’t give them a chance to do it again. We have now led the national opinion polls for well over a year.”
