Kemi Badenoch Says Reform Helped Labour By Announcing Defection During Mandelson Scandal
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch during a visit to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, 12 September 2025 (PA Images / Alamy)
4 min read
Exclusive: Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Reform UK of letting Keir Starmer off the hook after Nigel Farage announced a Tory defector amid the Lord Mandelson scandal.
In an exclusive interview with The House, Badenoch said that Reform helped the Labour government by announcing the defection while the Prime Minister was "on the ropes" over his handling of the Mandelson affair.
Danny Kruger, MP for East Wiltshire, defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK on Monday. It was also announced that he will lead the party’s department for preparations for government.
The former speechwriter for David Cameron, who also ran Robert Jenrick’s unsuccessful leadership campaign after the general election, claimed the Conservative Party was “over”. He had sat on Badenoch's frontbench as a shadow minister.
Speaking to The House, Badenoch said: “Every leader regrets any MP leaving the party. Danny has made a decision – I think it is a wrong decision. What I cannot allow is myself to be distracted by those sorts of things.
“I remember under the last parliament we had three defections to Labour. Sometimes people will defect because ‘this is where the polls are going, so I’m going to try to get ahead of that’.”
She added: “There will be bumps along the way, there will be difficulties. I thought it was interesting that Danny was complimentary about me but not the party.”
In a letter to Tory chief whip Rebecca Harris, Kruger wrote: “I very much regret I couldn’t give you or the party any warning of what I’m doing this morning. On a personal level, I have the greatest respect and affection for you, and indeed a real liking and admiration for Kemi, who has done the most difficult job in politics with courage and resilience.”
PoliticsHome understands that the Conservative leadership was not aware that the defection was coming before the announcement and only learned of it via the letter to the chief whip.
Asked if she was expecting more defections, the Tory leader replied: “I will not even allow myself to start worrying about that. Every minute I spend thinking about what other individuals are doing is a minute I’m not spending looking at what the Prime Minister is doing.
“I thought it was very interesting that Reform chose [Monday] to make this announcement when the Labour government was on the ropes. They’re changing the news agenda. That actually helps Labour. Reform is helping Labour.
“They’re more interested in the Westminster conversation around press conferences and defections. I was on a farm talking to farmers about how we could make their lives better.”
Kruger followed former ministers Nadine Dorries and Jake Berry in defecting to Reform. He was the first sitting Conservative MP to cross the floor, however. Leader Farage has said several senior Conservatives are also set to join his party in the coming months.
The Conservatives successfully secured an emergency debate in the Commons on Tuesday to press the government further on Keir Starmer’s appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador despite his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson was sacked on Thursday morning with immediate effect by Starmer following growing pressure over his links to convicted sex offender Epstein.
Badenoch did not have a recommendation for who should replace Mandelson but said: “We need somebody who has good links with the US, but not to the point where they're compromised or have a conflict of interest.”
She added: “The ambassador is not the Prime Minister's ambassador. It is His Majesty's ambassador.
“We are all loyal servants of the Crown. We need to think of who we're representing. It is His Majesty, the sovereign people of this country, not any particular political party.”
She also said Farage’s defence of Mandelson in his own interview with The House was “wrong”.
Before Mandelson’s sacking and the emails sent by the Labour peer to the sex offender had emerged, the Reform leader told the magazine: “How could anybody in American [high] society in New York in the 80s and 90s not have had links with Epstein?”
Badenoch hit back: “If that was the case, then this wouldn't be the scandal that it has been. But it also shows that there is often a culture among certain people of excusing bad behaviour.”
