Kemi Badenoch has used the first meeting of the shadow cabinet to criticise Rishi Sunak’s election campaign amid concerns that some colleagues are failing to grasp the “enormity” of the Conservative Party’s landslide defeat.
The shadow housing secretary, who is seen as a frontrunner for the Tory leadership contest, said at Tuesday’s meeting that Sunak’s decision to call an early election without informing his cabinet was a mistake and bordered on “unconstitutional”.
She said that instead of telling cabinet ministers first, Sunak had opted to inform a small group of colleagues, including Craig Williams, his parliamentary private secretary, who subsequently admitted placing a bet on the election date. She described Williams as a “buffoon”.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Badenoch also said that Sunak’s decision to return early from D-Day commemorations was “disastrous” and had dominated the election campaign, adding that colleagues such as Penny Mordaunt would still be MPs today if he had stayed longer in France.
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She said the Tories should not gloss over the scale of the election defeat, and that many colleagues were clearly still traumatised. She said Suella Braverman, the former home secretary who has made a series of trenchant interventions, appeared to be having a “very public” nervous breakdown.
Badenoch was said to be concerned that colleagues were ignoring the “enormity” of what had just happened and believes that a post-mortem is necessary to learn lessons from the landslide election defeat.
She was said to be speaking for colleagues, particularly former ministers who had lost their seats. She also spoke of the importance of shadow cabinet discussions not being leaked.
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Badenoch’s intervention came after a succession of shadow cabinet ministers paid tribute to Sunak. Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, hailed Sunak’s “work ethic, dignity and commitment to public service”.
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He said Sunak’s efforts had meant that the defeat was not as bad as it could have been. Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, spoke about his “huge debt” of personal gratitude to the former prime minister while John Glen, the shadow paymaster-general, said Sunak had taken on a “poisoned chalice for the whole party”.
Sunak apologised and said the responsibility for the election defeat was his alone. He said that the party now needed to look to the future.
One source said they had been surprised by the way that Badenoch had “ripped into” Sunak at the meeting after his apology.
Writing for The Times, James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, warns that the Tories must not resort to “bitter in-fighting and finger-pointing”. He says that they must instead unite and form a credible opposition if they are to win back trust.
Cleverly, a centrist, is weighing up whether to make a bid for the Tory leadership. He warned that the Tories must not seek “simple solutions” but instead make a “broad” offer to the electorate.
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He said: “We must get our act together. We need to unite in order to deliver. It will take humility and hard work, to recover our reputation for competence and integrity, to rebuild trust in our party, and unite behind a broad platform that will give people a reason to vote Conservative again.
“We must do this, for the sake of our party and country, so we can put ourselves in the best possible position to win the next general election and once again deliver for the British people.”
Despite calls for party unity, Braverman, the former home secretary, on Monday turned on her rival Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister. Both are vying for the support of the right of the party. Braverman accused Jenrick of being a “centrist Rishi supporter”.
