Badenoch says Reform defectors ‘some of the most dishonest people I have met’

Tory leader rules out coalition with Farage’s party and says ‘drama queens’ who left will not be welcomed back Kemi Badenoch has called defectors who left for Reform “some of the most dishonest people” she has ever met, as she ruled out allowing “drama queens” to return to the party. Speaking at the Edinburgh festival fringe, the Conservative party leader again ruled out any prospect of an election deal with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, insisting there would be no coalition between the parties. “Reform has people who left the Conservative party, some of the most dishonest people I have ever met in my entire life,” Badenoch told event host Iain Dale on Saturday. Multiple current or former parliamentarians have joined Reform from the Conservatives, including the former home secretary Suella Braverman and the former shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick. After being sacked by Badenoch for plotting against her, Jenrick called his former party “rotten” and “failed”. Hitting out at those such as Jenrick who defected, Badenoch said: “These are people who left us when we were at our lowest, many of them the people who caused the problems in the first place and