Badenoch blocks ex-Tory MPs from standing over net zero and ECHR stance
Kemi Badenoch has rejected former Conservative MPs as candidates for her party at the next election because they support net zero.
As reported by The Telegraph, Tory leader has refused to allow back former members, including MPs who lost their seats at the 2024 election, who disagree with her policy shift.
Under Mrs Badenoch, the Conservatives have rejected the target to achieve net zero by 2050 and pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights to better protect British borders.
Writing in The Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch says she is building a “party for the future”, not a “retirement home for failed politicians”.
The Telegraph understands that several former Conservative MPs have been rejected as candidates for the next election for refusing to align with her views on net zero and Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mrs Badenoch said her party will be ready if Andy Burnham calls a snap election after taking office on July 20, revealing she is vetting more than 2,000 parliamentary hopefuls over the summer.
Mr Burnham is on the brink of becoming the next prime minister after receiving 322 nominations from Labour MPs to be their next leader.
Polls tightening
The Conservatives are tied with Labour on around 20 per cent of the vote, according to YouGov, with both parties trailing Reform UK by around four points.
Mrs Badenoch says that some of her former colleagues “should never have been candidates before” and they will soon be informed they will not be allowed to stand again.
She writes: “If someone still believes in net zero targets that make energy more expensive and are destroying industry, they are not coming back.
“If someone thinks that the ECHR can be wished away rather than being dealt with properly, they are not serious.
“If they want to jump on every passing fad that makes us look more like Liberal Democrats than Conservatives, there is no place for them in this party. We have to show we have changed for the better.”
Mrs Badenoch’s decision last year to reject Britain’s target of reaching net zero by 2050 surprised some in her party, including former Tories who served under Lady May, who first introduced the goal.
The Tory leader has also pledged to leave the ECHR, arguing that abandoning rulings from Strasbourg was the only way to “protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens”.
Many former Conservatives have defected to Reform since losing their seats at the last election, although some have been rejected for their association with the last Tory government.
‘Some will defect, so be it’
Mrs Badenoch says that instead of rehiring these MPs, she would prefer to take on candidates from outside Westminster, including businesspeople, engineers, electricians, builders, teachers, veterans and creatives.
“No doubt some people will be disappointed,” she writes. “They will go to the papers and complain on their WhatsApp groups about being stitched-up. Some may brief journalists. Some will defect to Reform or the Liberal Democrats. So be it.”
Her approach will be seen as an attempt to distance her party from the failures of the last government, after she scrapped many of its policies and apologised for “getting it wrong” on migration.
Polls show the public now prefers Mrs Badenoch to both Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, although Mr Burnham remains more popular, with a rare positive approval rating.
Sources close to Sir Keir have warned that Mr Burnham’s popularity is unlikely to last long in Downing Street, raising the prospect of an early election to take advantage of the “bounce” of a new prime minister in No 10.
Mr Burnham’s team has indicated he is unlikely to call an election, but he will face demands to do so if he significantly alters Labour’s 2024 manifesto once he enters office.
In her article, Mrs Badenoch reveals that one prospective Tory candidate arrived at their screening interview drunk, while others “say one thing in public and another in private” and more still are “drama queens”.
She pledges to offer “no special treatment for former MPs and former ministers”, arguing: “Just because someone had a seat before does not mean the party owes them another one.”
“We are not selecting candidates for a protest movement,” she adds. “We are selecting people who may one day have to take decisions that shape the future of the country.”
Her intervention comes before a by-election in Clacton-on-Sea, which Mr Farage has declared a battle of “the establishment versus the people”, although all other major parties have refused to field a candidate.
Mrs Badenoch accused her rival of “playing games” with a “fake” election, in which the main rival to Reform is now Count Binface, a novelty candidate with a comic manifesto including to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s”.
Technology & Business Editor
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