Kemi Badenoch took a brutal swipe at fellow guest Nadine Dorries on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday korning politics show as her fury over leadership speculation boiled over.
Kuenssberg pressed Ms Badenoch on claims she and her allies are angling for her to become the next Prime Minister as a beleaguered Rishi Sunak appeared to be on the verge of a confidence vote from Tory MPs.
Ms Dorries has made a series of claims that Badenoch is the next leader being lined up by a shadowy cabal at the heart of the Tory Party which has included Michael Gove, Dominic Cummings and fixer Dougie Smith.
Pressed on the issue this morning, Ms Badenoch turned viciously on Dorries, saying: “We have one of your panel who has written an entire book – the plot – mostly conspiracy theories.”
She also said that she telephoned former Cabint colleague Sir Simoin Clarke to demand “what he was playing at” when he wrote an article last week demanding Rishi Sunak goes.
Ms Badenoch said that there are 350 Conservative MPs and that it was only one or two who want Sunak to go.
She dismissed speculation about his leadership as “gossip” and said that she had decided to back him in late 2022 having stodd in the first leadership contest “because this is a good guy who does the right thing, that is the guy I want to be leader.”
The Business and Trade Secretary also denied that she had been in conversations with people about her taking over the leadership.
Ms Badenoch is a clear favourite among Tory members according to ConHome polls and there has been speculation that he moves on the culture wars and Brexit recently have been positioning herself for the top job.
Just last week she appeared to disagree with the Prime Minister over his reported plan not to diverge from EU regulations.
In an earlier interview with Sir Trevor Phillips on Sky News she said: N”We have to stop treating Prime Ministers as disposable products.”
She added that all those briefing she should be leader “don’t care about me, don’t care about my family.”
Ms Dorries responded: “I would like to thank Kemi Badenoch for the plug for the book. I would also like to say the book exposes in detail her particular role in removing Boris Johnson.
“It also predicts a number of things which are happening now, such as those who plotted to remove Boris Johnson would turn against Rishi sunak very soon, which they are doing. Many of the predictions made are playing out right now before our eyes.”
Dorries also accused Badenoch of launching “a botched leadership bid against Rishi sunak last December” adding that her mentor “are the same people who removed Boris Johnson.”
She accused the Business Secretary of being “out for herself.”
