Rosindell says Badenoch refused to talk to Farage as he urges right-wing unity

Reform UK MP Andrew Rosindell has said Kemi Badenoch told him she would not speak to Nigel Farage, as he renewed his call for the right to unite against Labour. Speaking to Camilla Tominey, the MP for Romford was asked about Robert Jenrick's recent attack on the Conservative leader, in which Jenrick accused her of being "Kensington Kemi" and said the Tories were now for millionaires, not Mansfield, nostalgic for Mayfair clubs and focused on Belgravia.

Tominey put it to Rosindell that Farage himself has links to a Mayfair club, a friend with a Belgravia property and has lived in Kensington. Rosindell replied that he was not a member of any of those clubs and represented Romford, where hardworking entrepreneurs, law-abiding and tax-paying people were being taxed to the hilt by Labour. They had not done well under the Conservatives either, he said. He argued that his former party was looking to places like Kensington instead of Romford and provincial towns, which he called the bedrock of the nation. He said the working class, defined by him as anyone who works, needed more support.

On Jenrick, Rosindell rejected the idea that the former minister was being anti-Thatcherite. He said Jenrick was putting Thatcherite ideas in a modern context and cited a plan to raise the tax threshold to 15,000, which he said would benefit 40,000 people across the country. He also backed lower taxes, lower state spending and welfare reform. He blamed the Conservatives' lockdowns for damaging the economy and said the country was bankrupt, adding that the Conservatives were now focused on survival and on winning seats such as Westminster and Kensington from Labour.

Rosindell then described a direct appeal he made to Badenoch after the Conservative party conference, when he was still a Conservative MP. He said he told her that the country was more important than any political party, that the right needed to come together to remove the Labour government, and that she should talk to Farage and align on policy. According to Rosindell, Badenoch replied: "I've never spoken to that man and I will not speak to him." Tominey noted that Farage has said he wants the end of the Conservative Party and that Reform figure Zia Yusuf has been critical of some Conservatives. Rosindell said the Conservative Party had let the country down badly.

He also resisted the suggestion that he had been happy to serve under more moderate Conservative leaders but would not serve under Badenoch. He said the Conservative Party had been the only credible right-of-centre party able to govern at the time, and described himself as a Margaret Thatcher person. He said the party never recovered after Thatcher was pushed out by the establishment, becoming more technocratic and liberal and allowing the Blairite agenda to take hold. He said he had sat with gritted teeth under David Cameron, whom he described as heir to Blair, and had been a rebellious backbencher.

On Reform's electoral prospects, Rosindell said the party was appealing to voters the Conservatives could not reach. He said Essex showed Reform could win in both Blue Wall and Red Wall areas, pointing to local election results. He accepted that leafy and wealthy suburbs in London, Surrey and Hampshire, as well as the Tory shires and the South West, would be tougher territory. But he insisted support was strong across the country.