Badenoch allies dismiss ‘nonsense’ claims she asked GB News to cut Farage’s airtime
Allies of Kemi Badenoch have dismissed as “nonsense” claims that she asked GB News to cut airtime for Reform leader Nigel Farage.
The claims that Badenoch raised the issue of Farage’s prominence on GB News follows a row in which the Tory leader accused Reform of faking its membership numbers.
Farage said that Reform surpassed the Tories
in membership on Boxing Day, and has called on Badenoch to apologise for her accusations that the figures are manipulated.In a fresh twist to the row, Badenoch
was reported by the Mail on Sunday
to have raised Farage’s prominence on GB News, where he is a presenter, in a meeting with the media outlet’s chief executive. She is reported to have warned against the broadcaster becoming a haven for her critics.Sources close to Badenoch said the account was totally wrong and the story should be ignored.
A GB News spokesperson said: “The meeting took place without any acrimony and was very constructive.”
However, GB News reported on the Mail on Sunday story on its Ben Leo show on Saturday night, with its presenter saying it was an “extraordinary” development. The presenter said they had invited Badenoch and any members of the shadow cabinet to come on GB News since Boxing Day and been met with “stonewall silence”.
It subsequently played a clip of Badenoch saying she never makes any gaffes because she considers carefully what she says before speaking.
The spat between Badenoch and Farage over the membership numbers has caused unease among some Conservatives who would like to see the parties draw closer together rather than attacking each other.
Andrea Jenkyns, a former Tory MP who defected to Reform
, told GB News on Sunday that Badenoch had “trampled on any potential relationship” between Tories and Reform.Badenoch has not commented so far on
Farage’s calls for an apology
but allies have said that the Reform leader is “rattled” by her intervention.Farage has said he will take action against the Tory leader unless she says sorry for accusing him of publishing fake Reform membership data.
The Reform leader said he had opened up his database to media organisations after Badenoch claimed the rival party had coded an online counter to tick up automatically.
surpassing more than 130,000 Reform members on Boxing Day – surpassing the number of Tory members when Badenoch was elected as party leader in the autumn.Badenoch reacted with a thread on X accusing Farage and Reform of “manipulating” the public and presenting fake figures with an online ticker that was automated and not based on real people joining.
Farage’s party appears to be growing in support just six months after Labour’s landslide victory and Badenoch was elected new leader of the Tories.
Although another election is four years away, a new
, by More in Common, found that Labour could lose its majority if a new contest were to be held now.People’s voting intentions are unlikely to be settled this far out from an election but it found Labour could still be the largest party with 228 seats, the Tories could be in second place on 222 seats, Reform party could climb to third place with 72 MPs, the Liberal Democrats could fall into fourth on 58 seats while the SNP could be in fifth on 37 seats.