Kemi Badenoch has hit out at former Tory Minister Danny Kruger following his defection to Reform UK, accusing party leader Nigel Farage of "stealing Conservatives" for his own party.
Speaking to GB News following the press conference announcement to the nation's media, Mrs Badenoch affirmed that the Tories are the "only opposition" to Labour.
The Conservative leader told GB News: "What this is actually showing is that there are quite a lot of people distracted by Westminster politics rather than what is actually going on in our country.
"Our Prime Minister is having a political crisis, the economy is in free fall, there is only one party that is dealing with this."
Kemi Badenoch has hit out at Danny Kruger following his defection to Reform UK
|GB NEWS
Calling out Reform leader Nigel Farage, Mrs Badenoch stated: "We were the ones who have hauled Starmer to talk about the Ambassador he needed to sack, Peter Mandelson, we were the ones who started pointing to his Deputy Prime Minister's failure on her property issues, not paying her taxes.
"While we were doing that, where was Nigel Farage? In the US, telling everyone our country is North Korea."
Addressing Mr Kruger's departure, she added: "The fact of the matter is, the biggest issue facing the country now is the economy.
"We need to live within our means, and no one except the Conservative Party is focused on that. If people don't want to sit within the new policies that we're talking about, then I can understand. But I need to make sure that my party continues to face the key issues the country is dealing with right now, and that is what Labour is doing to our country."
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Danny Kruger has defected to Nigel Farage's party | PAQuizzed by GB News host Andrew Pierce on the loss of Mr Kruger from the Conservatives, Andrew pointed out that the new Reform member said "the mistake that's been made in the last year was you disappearing from public view for more than a year".
Mrs Badenoch responded: "You can see that I'm literally on here talking to you right now as I am every single day, making a lot of the case for why Labour is going in the wrong direction and why we need to fix it.
"And I'm not here to say that the Conservative Party got everything perfect. If we did, we would not have lost the election last year. My job is to make sure that we have a proper plan for Government. There is not an election today, there is an election in four years time, and we are using our time wisely to make sure that people understand what we're about."
Accusing Mr Farage of "telling everyone whatever they want to hear", Mrs Badenoch defended the Tories further: "If people are leaving because of policy disagreements, that means that the message that I'm putting out there is clear. But if people are leaving just because of poll ratings, then we have a problem.
Mrs Badenoch told GB News that Nigel Farage is 'stealing Conservatives'
|GB NEWS
"What we saw with Labour was they were telling people everything they wanted to hear, they got into Government and they didn't know what to do, we now see Reform doing the same thing. They are telling everybody what they want to hear, but they don't actually have a plan for how they're going to fix Government. If the only way they can solve that is by stealing Conservatives, then I think that that actually makes my case."
Pressed again by Andrew, the Britain's Newsroom host asked Mrs Badenoch if she believes the Tories are "finished".
She disagreed, concluding: "If it was finished, then we wouldn't be seeing Labour in real trouble with the loss of their ambassador just before they have a state visit. The fact of the matter is, the Conservative Party is the only opposition. While we were out there pointing out that Labour was bringing in tax rises while the Deputy Prime Minister wasn't paying her taxes, where was Nigel Farage? In the US telling everyone that our country was North Korea.
"I am here acting in the British national interest, not here just doing this because it's showbiz or because it's a game, I care about the people in this country. I care about the children that we're bringing up, what sort of country they're going to have, what sort of society they're going to grow up in, and I'm very focused on those issues. The Conservative Party is the only party that can deal with this, and I'm making sure that we're getting fit for the next election."