Kemi Badenoch’s attacks on Farage are backfiring spectacularly

Throughout the last parliament, Labour leader Keir Starmer and Lib Dem leader Ed Davey did not have a bad word to say about each other.

In fact, they hardly even acknowledged the existence of each other’s parties. Neither did they shake hands on a formal Lab-Lib electoral pact. They just both kept pounding away at the Conservative government’s weak spots and allowed it all to happen organically. Anti-Tory voters in every constituency congregated behind the ‘progressive’ party best placed to oust sitting Conservative MPs. It worked like a dream for both.

The contrast between the bounty from that arrangement and what is going on across the right of centre today is painful to behold. Reform leader Nigel Farage is far more of a natural pugilist than Davey and was always going to intrude into the Tory party’s private grief during its protracted leadership contest and aftermath.