Kemi Badenoch appeared on Sky News with Trevor Phillips and was made to look a little bit silly.
Trevor asked her: “you’re 12 points adrift of Reform in the polls & there’s gossip amongst your back benchers.”
Kemi Badenoch responded with: “People have always underestimated me… look where I am now..”
To which, he replied saying: “12 points adrift in the polls, that’s where you are.”
It comes as the Conservatives have slipped to fourth place behind Labour, Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats, a major poll has found.
In a survey that will raise fresh questions about Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, the Tories were in fourth on 16 per cent of the vote. Sir Ed Davey’s Lib Dems have overtaken the party, the YouGov poll showed, with 17 per cent of the vote.
Car usage
It comes as Kemi Badenoch has been questioned over her use of a ministerial car and driver that were not part of the official government car service (GCS), Labour has said.
The Conservative leader denied there were any security concerns on Sunday, saying there was full clearance for the driver and he was recommended by the government service.
Memos obtained by the Sunday Times found officials had warned it was not recommended for her to have a contract with a car service in her constituency.
The paper said that when she was secretary of state for business, Badenoch renewed a contract with the private firm but the department’s commercial director wrote a memo asking to see “justification for continued use of [the company] and to accept the security risks in doing so”.
Asked about the memos on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Badenoch said: “I never ignored security advice. The driver was security cleared, actually recommended by GCS, it was a contract that had been in place for about five years, and I renewed that contract.
“A memo was sent by someone who was unfamiliar with the contract, asking about security concerns, and other civil servants said there were no security concerns, and that’s the end of the matter.”
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Related: “Gossip about Boris’s return?”—Phillips delivers poll smackdown to Badenoch
