Minister not ruling out leadership bid amid ‘stirring’

Kemi Badenoch has hit out at Conservative plotters for "stirring" by suggesting she could replace Rishi Sunak - but did not rule out a future leadership bid.

The Business Secretary, who has emerged as the favourite potential candidate in polling of Tory members, said speculation about her ambitions was "all a distraction".

Touring broadcast studios yesterday, she insisted those mentioning her name were not her friends.

"They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader," she told Sky's Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

"The fact of the matter is most people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle-tattle.

"Quite frankly, the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends. They don't care about me. They don't care about my family or what this would entail. They are just stirring."

However, she did not deny having aspirations for the top job, telling the BBC'S Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "If you'd asked me two years ago in January 2022 I would have laughed it off and said it was a completely crazy idea.

"You never really know these things until you're in the moment. What I would remind people is that after Liz Truss left I stood up and said I'm not running again, Rishi's the person who should do the job. I did so because I worked with him the Treasury, I knew he had a handle on the economy."

It comes after Sir Simon Clarke went public claiming the Tories face electoral "massacre" under Mr Sunak as the Prime Minister faces pressure from the right of his party.