James Cleverly left stuttering in grilling over Tory chairman’s ‘Nazi’ comments: 'He was just trying to make a point!'

The grilling came after Kevin Hollinrake shared a picture of a Swastika badge in response to a post by the Reform leader.

Although he quickly deleted the post, he later doubled down by posting a link to a page about the badge instead.

Speaking on GB News Breakfast, Ellie Costello asked Mr Cleverly: "I ask you about this row that's erupting over these Reform UK badges?

"This is all about the Tory chairman, Kevin Hollinrake. He seemingly likened the new Reform UK badge, which is a gold and black in colour, to that of a Nazi badge that was handed out to the first 100,000 people who joined Hitler's Nazi party.

"He shared a Wikipedia link to that page. Do you think that's appropriate action from the Tory chairman, Kevin Hollinrake?

"Is that really what the Tories think of Reform UK voters?"

Stuttering as he tried to respond, Mr Cleverly said: "Well... I... I mean he was trying to make a point. That's not necessarily the way I would have made it.

"But the point that I think he is making is, is that the, the I mean, the situation with Nathan Gill, the former Reform leader in Wales who's now been imprisoned for corruption charges, having been bribed by Russia to promote pro-Moscow propaganda, is something that is worth highlighting.

"As I say, Kevin sought to do that in his own way, that's that's a decision that he made.

"I think it is right, not that we criticise people who vote Reform, these are people who we need to win over and indeed often win back to voting conservatives Conservative.

"I think it is absolutely legitimate to ask some very, very serious questions about the motivation of some of the elected people within Reform.

"And also, of course, it is a legitimate to to criticise the things that they're saying about Ukraine, about Russia, and about other things as well."

Mr Hollinrake, who has been in the party role since July, shared an image of a badge given to the first 100,000 members of Adolf Hitler’s party in 1933.

The post was a response to Nigel Farage, who had teased “coming soon” alongside a gold Reform UK logo.

Mr Farage hit back: “This is why they are on course to win 14 seats at the next election.”

Tory MP Suella Braverman branded the comparison "wrong, irresponsible and highly counter-productive".

She added: "Kevin does not speak for me."

In an interview with GB News yesterday, the Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed concerns over the post by Kevin Hollinrake, insisting it was "made in jest" and accused critics of obsessing over "silly things like tweets" when the country faces more serious challenges.

"I’m not going to apologise for a tweet that was made in jest", she said.

Westminster, she argued, spends too much time on social-media storms when voters are more concerned about the forthcoming Budget.

"People can make jokes on Twitter. That’s fine", she said.