Kemi Badenoch has ruled out any deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK following the results of Thursday’s by-elections.
The Tory leader dismissed calls to “unite the Right,” including from Edward Leigh, after the Conservatives secured Aberdeen South while Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon failed to beat Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election.
Calling the idea “terrible advice,” she argued that Douglas Lumsden’s win in Aberdeen South would have been undermined if the Conservatives had agreed not to stand in Makerfield in return for Reform staying out of Scotland.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, she said: “People would have mocked us, saying we only won because Reform stepped aside.
“A victory helped by Reform wouldn’t have been a real victory.”
Mrs Badenoch also stressed that the two parties are not the same, saying voters are “not ours to swap around like football cards.”
She added that Reform UK “dress like Thatcherites but behave like Corbynites,” accusing the party of backing “a bigger state, more spending, nationalisation, gimmicks and unfunded giveaways.”
The former Greater Manchester mayor won 55 per cent of the vote, while Reform UK took 35 per cent, Restore Britain secured 7 per cent, and the Conservatives managed just 2 per cent.
In Scotland, however, the Conservatives’ win suggested the party still has strength.
Following Mr Lumsden’s victory, Mrs Badenoch said: “The Makerfield by-election was about one man’s career.
“The Aberdeen South by-election was about thousands of jobs across the country, especially in the oil and gas sector.”
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay called the result a “sensational victory” and described it as a referendum on North Sea oil and gas.
There had been speculation that Mr Burnham would appoint Ed Miliband as Chancellor if he reached Downing Street, but the Aberdeen South result has cast doubt on that.
On Saturday, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham urged the new Makerfield MP not to hand the role to the former Labour leader.
This is not the first time Mrs Badenoch has rejected working with Reform UK.
Just last week, at a Spectator event, she said Reform held “quite a lot of Left-wing ideas.”
“They want more benefits, more nationalisation, and a bigger state — they just want to run it. So the answer is no,” she said.
A Reform spokesman said her comments were “quite ironic,” arguing that this was exactly how the Conservatives governed while in power. He added that she was “one of the main people who dressed like a Thatcherite and acted like a Corbynite.”
The spokesman added: “We’ll never need to strike a deal with the Tories. They broke Britain, and we won’t give them another chance.
“We’ve led the national opinion polls for well over a year.
“Kemi has taken the Conservatives backwards, from 25 per cent to 18 per cent.”
