Defect now if you’re thinking about leaving, Badenoch warns backbenchers
by 0 
It was billed as an emergency meeting of Tory MPs after a trio of defections to Reform UK, but judging by the noise that greeted Kemi Badenoch it could have been a victory rally.
When the Tory leader entered parliament’s committee room 14 for what could have been an awkward showdown with her backbenchers, the loud banging of desks and cheering lasted 25 seconds.
Cynics will say that the ritual of banging desks for Tory leaders at 1922 Committee meetings is purely for the benefit of journalists in the corridor. And if that’s true, the whips had done their job.
But her MPs liked what they heard in her speech. The Conservative Party would not be moving to the left after the defections and would always be a party of the Right, she declared.
The tone of her speech, coming after the defections of Robert Jenrick and Andrew Rosindell, was clearly designed to reassure those Conservative MPs who backed Mr Jenrick in the Tory leadership election.
And speaking to Sky News as she left the meeting, she re-opened her battle with Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions, insisting: “He’s right on Greenland and wrong on Chagos.”
And attacking Nigel Farage’s backing in Davos for “a strong America in Greenland”, she told Sky News: “People can see the difference between populism and Conservatism.”
Earlier, one of the first to arrive at the ’22 meeting had been the new Tory peer Sharron Davies, the Olympic swimming silver medallist and women’s campaigner, who only took her seat in the Lords the previous day.
And as Ms Badenoch rose to speak, she immediately dived into Mr Jenrick’s defection, admitting it had left a big gap in the shadow cabinet and acknowledging he did a “fabulous job” as shadow justice secretary.
Despite describing sacking him ahead of his defection last week as “spring cleaning”, here was a Tory leader now clearly accepting that her defeated leadership rival had strong support among MPs on the right of the party.
Read more:
All the former Conservative MPs who have defected to Reform
Jenrick defection makes it more likely Reform will win general election, says Yusuf
She claimed, not surprisingly, that Mr Jenrick’s resignation was based “not on ideology, but personal ambition”, something that all her MPs would undoubtedly agree with.
But the Tory leader also claimed an “unholy alliance of Reform and some of the left of our party are undermining what we want to do”.
And she told her MPs: “We are not moving left-wards, we are the party of the right and will always be a party of the right.”
She said the Conservative Party “remains the best vehicle to deliver proper Conservatism” and defended her claim that Britain is not broken, on which she clashed with Mr Jenrick before his defection.
“There is a lot to fix in this country,” she said. “A lot of stuff isn’t working, a lot is broken, but the whole country isn’t broken beyond repair.”
This emergency meeting was called as the Tory leader fired off a defiant letter to her MPs on Monday following the latest defection to Reform UK, by Mr Rosindell.
“Differences of opinion are part of a healthy party,” she wrote. “But there is a clear line between disagreement and trying to damage the party from within.
“Those who cannot be part of a Conservative Party that is changing in this way are free to make other choices.
“Those who want to undermine or destroy the party will be dealt with firmly and fairly.
“There will be no hard feelings about that as they will create space for those who share our values and purpose.”
In other words, if you’re going to defect, go now. But on the evidence of the noisy show of support at this meeting, the bulk of her MPs are backing her. For now, anyway.
