Kemi Badenoch has described Conservative MPs and former ministers who defected to Reform UK as "some of the most dishonest people I have ever met in my entire life", and ruled out any prospect of an electoral pact or coalition with Nigel Farage's party.
The Conservative leader made the remarks on Saturday during her first appearance at the Edinburgh festival fringe, in a live interview with the broadcaster Iain Dale at the Pleasance at EICC. Pressed on whether the two parties of the right could work together at the next general election, she said there would be "no deals before or after".
"What I want is a Conservative government, not a monstrous Reform/Conservative hybrid."
Badenoch also slammed the door on defectors seeking to return, saying she did "not want drama queens in the Conservative party". She said she had "heard that other MPs are having indirect approaches" from those who had previously left, adding: "I am not really entertaining them."
Of the defectors' motives, she said: "These are people who left us when were at our lowest, many of them the people who caused the problems in the first place and then ran away." She said she wanted "only the very best, only the brightest, only the most hardworking, to be Conservative MPs", and framed her position as one of national rather than factional interest: "It is not about uniting the right, it is about uniting our country."
Her criticism extended to the Reform leader personally. "Nigel Farage dictates what he wants depending on what he had for breakfast that day," she said, according to copy filed by the Press Association. "How do I work with people like that when I am making carefully curated plans and taking a systems-based approach?"
Asked by Dale whether refusing to deal with Reform risked delivering a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition in a hung parliament, Badenoch said the best option in those circumstances would be to return to the country and hold a fresh election.
The comments follow an 18-month wave of defections that has reshaped the parliamentary right. Danny Kruger became the first sitting Conservative MP to join Reform in September 2025. Nadhim Zahawi followed in January 2026, and Robert Jenrick was sacked by Badenoch on 15 January over what she called "irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect", joining Reform hours later and calling the Conservatives "rotten". Suella Braverman resigned her Tory membership on 26 January, taking Reform to eight sitting MPs. Jenrick has served as Reform's Treasury spokesperson since 17 February. The campaign group Best for Britain recorded 177 Tory-to-Reform defections in total as of 15 June.
Badenoch has previously characterised the departures as a "tantrum dressed up as politics" and said Farage was "doing my spring cleaning for me".
Her absolutism on deals sits awkwardly with earlier positioning. She has previously told the BBC that she ruled out a Westminster arrangement but that local Conservative leaders "have to do what is right for the people in their local area", noting the party had gone into coalition with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and independents at council level. It was not immediately clear whether Saturday's "no deals" formulation was limited to Westminster.
The interview also covered Scotland, where Badenoch said she "feels a pull", described the country's relationship with the SNP as "very dysfunctional" and said Scotland "should be more Conservative than it is". She said the Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, "really should be the first minister". Findlay led the party to 12 Holyrood seats in May, a loss of 19, while Reform entered the Scottish parliament with 17.
The most recent Ipsos poll, conducted between 30 July and 4 August among 1,033 British adults, put Labour on 28%, Reform on 25% and the Conservatives on 18%.
Reform UK had not responded to the remarks at the time of publication.
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