Watch the moment Kemi Badenoch accuses Robert Jenrick of 'lying' just hours before bombshell text messages leaked

Mr Jenrick made the claim on GB News on Thursday night, telling Patrick Christys: "I remember writing a perfectly reasonable article arguing that some of the foreign aid budget should be redirected to defence to support our armed forces, a policy now backed by both Keir Starmer and the Conservatives.

"One of the whips, who is now the Chief Whip, messaged me to say I was ‘totally out of order’ and that there was a 'special place in hell' for people who made arguments like that."

Following Mrs Badenoch's on-air attack, Mr Jenrick took to social media to share a screenshot of the text messages, captioning the post: "They still won't tell the truth."

Rebutting Mr Jenrick's claim, Mrs Badenoch told GB News: "He's lying. He's lying and I think it's a real shame that he's being allowed to air these views. He's left the party, it's time for him to move on.

"It is our policy, a policy that the Chief Whip has been enforcing to spend more money on defence and take it away from aid. I've given speeches about it, and I think this whole saga has not been about policy or policy disagreements, it is about character."

Taking aim at the ex-Tory, she fumed: "We have somebody who was dishonest in our party, repeatedly betraying the confidences of his colleagues. He's now going on TV trying to knife everyone in the back.

"Why doesn't he just tell people what it is that he wants to offer, rather than just being the sort of person who is slagging off the organisation that he left?"

Assuring that her focus is firmly on leading the Conservatives, Mrs Badenoch said: "All of your viewers would have had bad leavers like that. And imagine if somebody left their company to go to another job, they should move on, shouldn't they?

"We're moving on, we're talking about how we're going to get Britain working again. I'm just finishing a farm visit where I've been talking to farmers about food security and the changing trade, trade relationships that are likely to happen with all of the stuff that's going on around the world.

"And he's busy going around news stations talking about 'the Chief Whip said this to me', and that's it. It's time for him to move on."

Quizzed on the decision of Conservative councils to delay their local elections in May, the Tory leader told GB News: "not many uh conservative councils are delaying. I've been very clear these elections should go ahead. Sometimes there are reasons to delay by a year, but more than a year, I think, is extraordinary.

"However, local council leaders have their own democratic mandate. They will have to answer to their constituents. Conservative party policy is these elections should go ahead."

Pressed by host Dawn Neesom on the 1.4 million voters in Suffolk and Norfolk who will be denied a vote due to the delays, Mrs Badenoch responded: "I have said very clearly that these elections should go ahead, and what I've seen is Labour trying to bully councils into not holding elections. I wouldn't be surprised if that's played a part in it.

"But I'm somebody who believes that the electorate should get a chance to have their say, and what is interesting is how some people are quite happy to delay elections if they think they're going to lose, and then complain that elections are being delayed if they think they're going to win."

She argued: "I am somebody who is very consistent. I think one year to allow for local Government reorganisation is fine for a delay. That's already happened. The real problem is that Labour is still not organised. It shouldn't take this long.

"The mess that they're making with our local Government system is something that people aren't really paying attention to. That's what I'm most worried about."

Grilled by host Tom Harwood on whether she would impose "sanctions" on those Tory authorities who delay their elections, Mrs Badenoch concluded: "I think that we should look at the vast majority of Labour councils who are asking for the delay. The councils who have asked for a delay that are concerted have explained that it is about money.

"I've been very clear with them that I think that they should go ahead, but I also respect local democracy. This is not something which is within our constitution around sanctions. I'm not a dictator, I don't just make up rules when I want to punish people because they're not doing something that I agree with. You can go to Reform or Nigel Farage for that.

"And as it happens, I think we should be asking Reform why they're not having by-elections for those defections. They've been talking a lo about why they want to see elections held, but they don't seem to want those elections held when they have people jumping from one party to another, that is anti-democratic.

"People voted for Conservatives and they should get a chance to have their say."