Kemi Badenoch has launched a blistering attack on Robert Jenrick’s supporters, branding them “sore losers” whilst revealing she faces racist abuse from critics who claim she only became Conservative leader through “diversity, equity and inclusion” policies.
The Tory leader suggested some detractors “can’t cope with the fact that I won this” and accused them of treating British politics as a “game” rather than focusing on the country’s needs. In an explosive interview with The Sunday Times, Mrs Badenoch also labelled Nigel Farage a “bullshit artist” as the Conservative Party struggles to compete with Reform UK’s surging popularity.
Mrs Badenoch defeated Mr Jenrick in last year’s leadership contest by 53,806 votes to 41,000, becoming the first Black woman to lead a major British political party. But her tenure has been marked by internal sniping and dismal polling figures that show the Conservatives trailing both Labour and Reform UK.
“There will always be people who are sore losers, our candidate didn’t win and so on, and sour grapes,” Mrs Badenoch told The Sunday Times. “When I hear those things, I can tell those people are not focused on the country at all.”
The Conservative leader revealed that much of the criticism aimed at her was “about my race and my ethnicity”, with anonymous attackers suggesting she was merely a diversity hire who “couldn’t possibly have done this all by herself.
Mrs Badenoch said: “There’s a certain cadre of people who clearly can’t cope with the fact that I won this and I’m doing it. The level of personal attacks from anonymous people, it’s hysterical.”
Shadow justice secretary Mr Jenrick, who has built a following through slick social media videos including footage of him putting up English flags and tackling fare dodgers, was said to find the leadership speculation “distressing. Mrs Badenoch dismissed suggestions he could replace her as “wishful thinking” by his supporters.
“Not even just from MPs. I actually don’t think there are that many MPs. I think it’s two to three people out of 120. That’s nothing. But online as well,” she continued, referring to the scale of opposition within parliamentary ranks.
The Tory leader drew parallels with American politics, stating: “People used to talk about Trump derangement syndrome. I think there’s a Kemi derangement syndrome – ‘How could she possibly have done this? It must have been DEI’.”
Mrs Badenoch acknowledged that social media had become a breeding ground for “ethno-nationalism”, with “lots of stuff about my race and my ethnicity and the tropes around, ‘well, she couldn’t possibly have done this all by herself’.”
The leadership tensions come as the Conservative Party faces an existential crisis in the polls. According to YouGov, Reform UK now commands 28 per cent of public support compared to Labour’s 21 per cent and the Conservatives’ dismal 18 per cent – leaving the Tories trailing Farage’s party by a devastating 10 percentage points.
Mrs Badenoch admitted her task was more challenging than that faced by William Hague after the 1997 Labour landslide, explaining: “We’ve got fewer MPs, and we’ve got this new problem with Reform taking a lot of our votes.
The Conservative leader launched a fresh foul-mouthed attack on the Reform UK leader, describing Farage as a “bullshit artist” who was “just about pulling this down and destroying things. She claimed his friendship with Donald Trump was fake and said her opinion of him changed after details of a private conversation between them appeared in the Telegraph.
I used to really respect him,” Mrs Badenoch said of Farage. “I thought, this is bullshit. And that was the moment that it changed for me, that this is a bullshit artist, so that is how I treat him.”
YouGov polling reveals that 45 per cent of 2024 Conservative voters now hold a favourable view of Farage, though this still trails Badenoch’s 55 per cent approval among the same group. More concerning for the Tories is that a majority of Conservative voters (53 per cent) now view Reform UK favourably.
Mrs Badenoch explained that voters are “angry because of things that Labour is doing” and “they are angry because they think that we left the country in a bad state”, acknowledging the dual challenge facing her leadership.
The Conservative Party’s popularity has steadily declined throughout 2025, falling from 22 per cent support in January. Labour has also struggled, with Keir Starmer recording his worst-ever net favourability rating of -46 in May, though this has since recovered slightly to -34.
Mrs Badenoch’s own approval ratings remain troubled, with just 21 per cent of Britons viewing her favourably whilst 52 per cent hold negative opinions, giving her a net rating of -31. This compares unfavourably to Farage’s -29 net rating and Ed Davey’s -5.
The Tory leader’s victory margin in the leadership contest was the lowest ever for a winner under the current system, securing only one-third of MPs’ support in the final round – just one vote ahead of Jenrick. Her 56.5 per cent share of the membership vote was also historically low for a victorious candidate.
Party insiders suggest the leadership speculation reflects deeper divisions within Conservative ranks. One Labour MP told sources this week that “neither will last two years”, though they considered Badenoch “marginally more of a threat” than Jenrick because she can “think outside the box on issues.
Mrs Badenoch attracted greater support from female and ethnic minority MPs during the leadership contest, with 27 per cent and 20 per cent of her backers respectively, compared to 22 per cent and 7 per cent for Jenrick. However, Jenrick performed better among new MPs and members of the culturally conservative Common Sense Group.
As Reform UK continues its march in the polls and speculation about her leadership persists, Mrs Badenoch faces the monumental task of rebuilding a party that suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat whilst fending off internal critics who question her legitimacy.
“Many of those people having those conversations think this is a game,” she insisted. “But the lives of people in this country aren’t a game.”
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