Kemi Badenoch Wants To Boot Burnham Out Of No.10, But First She Intends To Destroy Nigel Farage

Kemi Badenoch wants the public to know that come the next election, she will be engaged in a “battle for the soul of the nation” with Andy Burnham.

But it was clear from her speech to the Tory Party conference in Birmingham that she intends to destroy Nigel Farage beforehand.

Any lingering hope of the Conservatives and Reform UK setting aside their differences in order to “unite the Right” and defeat Labour were well and truly thrown in the political dustbin by Badenoch.

If disgruntled right-of-centre voters want to blame anyone for this state of affairs, they should look no further than Suella Braverman.

With a book to sell, the former Tory home secretary-turned-Reform MP declared that due to her Asian heritage, she can never be truly English.

That is despite the fact that she was born, brought up, educated and lived in England her entire life.

It was clear from her address to the Tory faithful that Badenoch believes that Braverman’s comments have put Reform well and truly beyond the pale.

The Conservative leader said she doesn’t “want to live in a country run by people who ... debate whether my mixed-race children are English”.

“I don’t want to explain to my son when we’re watching our brilliant England team play football that some people don’t think our black players are English,” she said.

“I remember back in the day when Ian Wright and John Barnes were playing, nobody was questioning whether they were English. We certainly didn’t have sitting MPs questioning whether they were English.

“We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are. Reform MPs are openly questioning people’s identity. They are not like us; we are not like them.”

Of course, Badenoch’s speech was also peppered with attacks on Burnham, who she described as “a Paddington Bear prime minister, hoping that the problems go away, while Putin attacks our allies, while our economy flatlines”.

Promises of cuts to inheritance tax and national insurance for under-25s, on top of her previous vow to scrap stamp duty, were standard Tory fare and unsurprisingly welcomed by the party rank-and-file.

But in order to deliver on those promises, Badenoch must turn around her party’s flatlining poll numbers and see off the threat of Reform before turning her guns on Labour.

It may seem like a long shot, but she is clearly up for the fight.

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