Conservatives need to do more to appeal to disaffected voters on the right, says Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch
The Tories need to do more to appeal to disaffected voters on the Right, Kemi Badenoch said yesterday.
Hinting at a potential future leadership pitch, the Business Secretary said the Tories had to provide more 'clarity' that they are still Conservative to prevent supporters being picked off by Nigel Farage.
Mrs Badenoch said the Conservatives had to a party 'that occupies the whole of the centre-Right, not just the centre, because that's where we're losing to Reform'.
She told GB News: 'We're being hit on the Left, being told that we're too Right-wing, and hit from the Right and being told that we're too Left-wing. We've got to be a little bit broader in that direction.'
The Tories need to do more to appeal to disaffected voters on the Right, Kemi Badenoch said yesterday
Hinting at a potential future leadership pitch, the Business Secretary said the Tories had to provide more 'clarity' that they are still Conservative to prevent supporters being picked off by Nigel Farage .
Asked if the Tories have become too broad a coalition, she replied: 'Clearly not so broad... we haven't been able to keep Reform voters.'
She added: 'There needs to be some kind clarity that comes into place, people need to know that we are Conservative, people need to know that we are on their side, that we will defend them, that we will not let the Left-wing activists come for them, we won't let Just Stop Oil block the roads and stop them from going about their daily business.'
Mrs Badenoch is the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader if the party loses this week's election.
She declined to comment directly on whether she would stand as Tory leader, saying: 'People knew that I tried to run two years ago. I didn't win. Rishi Sunak is the one who had the confidence of MPs.
'And I think it's actually disrespectful if people are talking about what they're going to do after the leadership when he's still there.'
Mrs Badenoch is the bookmakers' favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader if the party loses this week's election
But she acknowledged 'frustration' with the level of immigration, saying ministers had been misled over the number of foreign care workers and dependants would come to the UK when a new visa scheme was introduced.
She said it 'breaks my heart' that former Tory supporters she meets on the doorstep are now planning to vote Reform, adding: 'I know they are not going to get what they think they are going to get with Reform.'
Mrs Badenoch, who is also Equalities Minister, stepped up her ward of words with former Doctor Who actor and trans rights campaigner David Tennant, who caused controversy last week when he told her to 'shut up'.
She said he was 'probably regretting make those remarks' and urged him to apologise.
And she warned that Labour would make it easier for people to change gender, and reduce protections for single-sex spaces.
