Kemi Badenoch has told Tories who “want to jump ship” to Nigel Farage’s Reform they are “welcome to do so”.
Following the defection of former Conservative chairman Sir Jake Berry on Wednesday, the Tory leader said anybody else who wants “more welfare and higher taxes and more spend” is welcome to join another party.
In a candid admission, she said there are people “who are not Conservatives, people who have probably been holding us back for a long time, then they should go to other parties that fit in with their values”.
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“A lot of people come into politics just to play the game of politics, and they will follow polls and defect wherever they can, like they do in banana republics, to wherever they think that they can win,” she said after a speech on welfare reform.
“All of the people who are not interested in coming up with a proper policy plan and just want to jump ship, are welcome to do so, because when the time comes of the next general election, the public are going to be looking for a serious, credible alternative.
“We are the only serious, credible alternative.”
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Earlier this week, another former Tory cabinet minister, ex-Welsh secretary David Jones, also defected from the Conservatives to join Reform.
Fighting back against Mr Farage, Ms Badenoch said: “Make no mistake, he is Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette on welfare.
“He shows his true colours, promising these unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system.”
Ms Badenoch kicked off her speech by saying the UK is “becoming a welfare state with an economy attached”.
She accused left-wing Labour MPs and MPs from every other party of voting for higher welfare spending after they voted for the government’s welfare bill, which was heavily watered down following threats from Labour rebels.
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The Conservative leader said there will always be some people who need the state’s support but said “a line in the sand” needed to be drawn about which conditions are given support.
“Food intolerances are a medical fact, but they are not something we should be handing out new cars for – this is not a joke, this actually happens,” she said.
The Conservative leader said while Labour and Reform MPs “don’t understand” what the two-child benefits cap does, she would keep it because she instead wants to make sure people can afford to have big families “because they are in good jobs, not by increasing the tax burden on working people”.
