Kemi Badenoch warns every vote for Reform would help Labour reverse Brexit, boost militant trade unions and rip up ‘common sense’ rules on gender
A voice for reform will penetrate Work and allow sir Keir Starmer turning back Brexitstrengthen the militant unions and tear up the rules of common sense sex, Kemi Badenoch warned yesterday.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the Business Secretary said Tory voters who flirt with reform risk ushering in a Labor government that has no interest in reducing immigration – and will suffocate businesses in red tape , pushing the economy into recession.
Ms Badenoch was speaking on the campaign trail in Clacton, where she and the Home Secretary James Slim spent the day helping fellow Essex Tory Giles Watling defend his seat against the Nigel Farage Moloch. The reform leader made a dramatic decision this week to run for parliament.
In a scathing assessment, she dismissed Mr Farage as a “show business candidate”, adding: “The Prime Minister is someone who needs to run the country, not just drink pints.”
She predicted the Tories would manage to make things unhappy for the eighth time for the reform leader, whose seven previous parliamentary attempts failed. ‘Will Mr Farage be here when we do all this less glamorous stuff, holding public meetings about pylons and potholes?’ she said.
A vote for reform will usher Labor in and allow Sir Keir Starmer to reverse Brexit, strengthen militant unions and tear up common sense rules on gender, Kemi Badenoch warned yesterday.
In an interview with Daily Mail political editor Jason Groves (left), the business secretary said Tory voters flirting with reform risk ushering in a Labor government that will have no interest in reducing immigration.
Kemi Badenoch with James Cleverly and Clacton candidate Giles Watling on his campaign trail on Friday
Referring to the reform leader’s long relationship with Donald Trump, she added: “Is he going to do that or is he going to be in America?”
“I think the people of Clacton need to ask that question: who is coming to work for you here?” She continued: “It is very important that we keep reforms out because all reform does is make Labor stronger. We did so much… while Farage was just laughing and mocking.
“All the work I’ve done in equality rights, women’s rights – trying to stop men going to women’s toilets because they’re labeling themselves. All that stuff will disappear under Labour.
‘They are not interested in preserving their sanity. And I think a lot of people in Clacton, a lot of people with common sense, will understand what’s at stake.”
Ms Badenoch said she was ‘not surprised’ that Labor opposed its recent pledge to rewrite the party’s Equality Act to allow organizations to ban transgender women from single-sex spaces, or the plan to make it easier for people to change gender. And she ridiculed Sir Keir for his struggles to define what a woman is, saying he was ‘detached from reality’.
She said: ‘If you’re willing to say that women can have penises, what are you going to say about issues, more complex issues like the economy?’
The Business Secretary is the bookmakers’ favorite to replace Rishi Sunak if the Tories lose the election. But she was diplomatic when asked if she thought she could run a better campaign. “I don’t think this would be an easy campaign for anyone,” she said.
Instead, she turned her fire on Labour, saying Angela Rayner’s plans to introduce a major workers’ rights package would strengthen the hand of the union barons and ‘destroy’ business and employment.
Ms Badenoch also claimed Labor was paving the way for a return to EU membership by blaming ‘everything on Brexit’. She said there is “more to do” on Brexit and made it clear she would be willing to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in certain circumstances.
“The convention clearly has serious implications for the legislation we see around immigration, and some form of reform is needed,” she said.
