Kemi Badenoch has warned Tory plotters to “stop messing around” as she insisted those touting her as Rishi Sunak’s replacement “are not my friends”.
The Business Secretary, who has emerged as the favourite Cabinet minister in polling of Tory members, said speculation about her ambitions was “all a distraction”.
Lashing out at those who are “just stirring”, she warned Conservative MPs to stop treating prime ministers “as if they are disposable”.
Her forthright remarks come days after ex-Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke called for a new Conservative leader ahead of the general election as he warned the party is headed for a “massacre”.
There is also intrigue about an unknown group of Tory donors who have funded polling that suggests the Conservatives are set for a 1997-style wipeout at the ballot box.
It has been claimed that Tory rebels want to crown Mrs Badenoch as Conservative leader in May in a bid to make her “the next Mrs Thatcher”.
But, asked on Sky News about reports some Tory MPs want her to be installed as Mr Sunak’s replacement, Mrs Badenoch said: “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 PM and I have said many times that I stood to be leader and lost, and the last time we had a contest after Liz Truss resigned I said that the right person to lead the country was Rishi Sunak, and I still believe that to be the case.”
The Business Secretary added: “They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader.
“The fact of the matter is most people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle-tattle.
“Quite frankly, the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about my family or what this would entail. They are just stirring.”
However, she did not deny having aspirations for the top job, telling the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “If you’d asked me two years ago in January 2022 I would have laughed it off and said it was a completely crazy idea.
“You never really know these things until you’re in the moment. What I would remind people is that after Liz Truss left I stood up and said I’m not running again, Rishi’s the person who should do the job. I did so because I worked with him the Treasury, I knew he had a handle on the economy.”
Ms Badenoch also tore into Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for stoking “culture wars” and wanting to “smear” British history.
“The only people who are stoking culture wars are the people who are trying to change things,” she told Sky News.
“The people who are trying to change what’s written in our history books, the people who are trying to change what’s in our museums.
“And when someone comes along and says, actually, we think this is fine, we’re the ones who are accused of being culture warriors, I don’t let myself get distracted by those silly accusations when people make them, you know that they don’t have an argument.”
She added: “We believe in this country. We think we have a great story to tell. We think we have a great history.
“It doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, but what we’re not going to do is stand back and allow people like Labour, like the Labour Party or Keir Starmer to smear our country or our history or even individuals as McCarthyites when what we’re doing is standing up for the truth.”
