Badenoch wants a general election if Starmer is ousted - that’s the height of hypocrisy

As Labour prepares for a local election drubbing, Kemi Badenoch has demanded a general election if the results end in Keir Starmer being replaced as prime minister.

With her usual grace, the Tory leader told the Telegraph that the possible challengers – Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting were “just left wingery in a different outfit, with red hair, or with a cheesy grin, or just weirdness. But it’s still the same left wingery.”

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She said that none of them would have a mandate to govern if they replaced Starmer as prime minister and added: “I think the public should have their chance to have a say on what it is they want.”

Badenoch became an MP in June 2017, at the snap general election that nearly cost Theresa May her job as PM. When May was forced out on May 24, 2019, Badenoch did not call for a general election and supported Michael Gove to become Tory leader and thus prime minister. He failed to make the final two, eliminated on the fifth ballot, after which Boris Johnson beat Jeremy Hunt for the leadership. Badenoch was rewarded with a series of roles, including finally as minister of state for levelling up.

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When Johnson was forced out on July 7, 2022, Badenoch did not call for a general election. He announced her own candidacy and ran on a platform that included pledges on postponing net zero targets, on reducing the size of the state and on “telling the truth”, but said nothing about calling an immediate general election. She failed to make the final two, eliminated on the fourth ballot, after which Liz Truss beat Rishi Sunak for the leadership. Badenoch was rewarded by being named secretary of state for international trade.

When Truss was forced out on October 20, 2022, Badenoch did not call for a general election. She endorsed Rishi Sunak for the leadership, calling him “the serious, honest leader we need”. Badenoch was rewarded by being retained as secretary of state for international trade, later becoming secretary of state at the new Department of Business and Trade.

At no point – when there was a job in it for her – did Kemi Badenoch claim that a new Tory prime minister would have no mandate to continue and that a general election was the only solution. Now she has changed her mind. That looks like complete hypocrisy.