Kemi Badenoch is unlikely to apologise for claiming that Reform UK’s membership figures had been “fake”, shadow house secretary Chris Philp has stated.
The Conservative chief sparred with Nigel Farage final month when the Reform chief stated his occasion now had extra members than the Tories and was “the real opposition” to Labour.
On the time, a digital counter on the occasion’s web site stated the occasion had 131,680 members – the quantity the Conservative Occasion declared earlier than its management election within the autumn – simply earlier than noon on Boxing Day.
The quantity on its web site now stands at greater than 173,000.
Ms Badenoch, who changed Rishi Sunak as Tory chief final November, instantly disputed the figures final month, posting on X: “Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?. It’s not real. It’s a fake… [the website has been] coded to tick up automatically.”
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Reform has subsequently threatened to take authorized in opposition to Ms Badenoch if she doesn’t apologise.
Requested whether or not she would apologise in gentle of the invention, Mr Philp informed Sunday Morning with Trevor Philips: “I don’t think so. She also had information that she based her comments on.”
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He added: “Let me let me just be clear about some of the most important facts.
“Because the basic election, there have been, I believe, 175 council by-elections – we have now received seven occasions extra of these than Reform. We have received about 50. They’ve solely received I believe seven. We’re successful seats from Labour who’re dropping seats to us.”
Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform, later told Sunday Morning with Trevor Philips his party was unlikely to pursue legal action against Ms Badenoch.
“The factor a few authorized motion is it’s important to show hurt,” he explained.
“The reality is that Kemi Badenoch has helped us, so we’re type of thanking her.”
He added: “However what we would like is an apology – I believe Chris Philp has simply confirmed we’re not going to get an apology.”
He said that in absence of an apology, “we will as a substitute make her constituency a key goal seat for Reform on the subsequent basic election”.
“We expect that may focus the thoughts of the chief of the opposition, truly, on what actually issues,” he added.
Mr Philp was also questioned about words used by Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary who lost the Tory leadership to Ms Badenoch.
Mr Jenrick posted on X: “To maintain order in a multicultural Britain, the state thought of it crucial to use the regulation selectively.
“For decades the most appalling crimes from predominantly British Pakistani men were legalised and actively covered up to prevent disorder.”
Requested whether or not he believed that the earlier Tory authorities “covered up scandals”, Mr Philp stated: “I don’t think the government covered up the scandal, but I think there were individual local authorities who did.
“They had been largely, by the way in which, Labour-controlled native authorities in locations like Oldham.
“And we’ve seen examples of individual police forces not investigating very serious reports of criminal activity, the gang rape of young girls, because they were worried about community tensions.
“All of that was fully flawed and morally flawed, morally bankrupt.”
Pressed on whether he would use the same language as Mr Jenrick – who claimed the grooming scandal happened because Britain had a policy of “importing a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals from alien cultures” – Mr Philp replied: “He’ll select his phrases. I am going to select mine. I have not used these phrases.”
