Kemi Badenoch has insisted she would not wish to topple Rishi Sunak and advised Tory plotters to “stop messing around”.
The Business and Trade Secretary is being talked up in Westminster as a attainable successor to the flailing Prime Minister, as disgruntled Tories mentioned ousting Mr Sunak and putting in her as chief. It comes after every week of bitter Tory rows, which exploded into public view when ex-Cabinet Minister Sir Simon Clarke urged Tories to ditch Mr Sunak or threat being “massacred” on the election.
He acquired public criticism from Conservative MPs for his intervention however behind the scenes, a loosely organised group of Tories seems to be plotting his downfall. Rebels, together with former No10 aide Will Dry, are mentioned to be behind a mega-poll predicting electoral oblivion for the Tories beneath Mr Sunak’s management.
Asked if she put the rebels as much as it, Ms Badenoch advised Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “A lot of people who are going around doing this are creating problems and difficulties that the party and more importantly the country does not need. I fully support the Prime Minister.”
She added: “They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader. The fact of the matter is most of the people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle tattle. And frankly the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends.”
Ms Badenoch mentioned the rebels had been simply “stirring” and nearly all of Tory MPs supported the Prime Minister. She added: “We can’t keep treating Prime Ministers as if they are disposable. Oh, the polls aren’t doing so well, so let’s toss someone else and find another person’ – that’s quite wrong.”
She added: “We should not be trying to drag out prime ministers on the basis of a popularity contest and polling on websites.”
Ms Badenoch, who’s the preferred Cabinet minister in response to Tory bible ConservativeDwelling, ran to be Tory chief when Boris Johnson was ousted. An outsider candidate, she carried out higher than anticipated, coming fourth behind Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and winner Liz Truss.
She threw her weight behind Mr Sunak within the fast-tracked contest to succeed to Ms Truss in November.