Kemi Badenoch has told plotters trying to oust Rishi Sunak from office to stop stirring – but did not rule out a future leadership bid.
The business secretary said she fully supported the prime minister as she attempted to distance herself from the bid to eject him from Downing Street.
Her name is at the centre of intense speculation over who could replace him, but she insisted the shadowy group were not her friends.
“They don’t care about me. They don’t care about my family or what this would entail. They are just stirring,” she said.
But she did not rule out a future tilt at the top job, saying “you never know these things (standing again) until you’re in the moment”.
Business secretary Kemi Badenoch (Aaron Chown/PA)
(PA Wire)
The beleagured Mr Sunak is the focus of a plot by MPs, donors and former aides to force him from office.
Ms Badenoch’s name has been put forward as the possible “consensus” candidate to replace him Sunak – that is the MP who could command the most support across the party.
Asked about the plot on Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme, she said: “A lot of people who are going around doing this are creating problems and difficulties that the party, and more importantly the country, does not need.
“I fully support the prime minister.”
Those putting her name forward are not her friends, she said, adding: “They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader.
Prime minister Rishi Sunak
(EPA)
“The fact of the matter is most people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle-tattle. Quite frankly, the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends.”
The donors recently funded an explosive poll that forecast a devastating Labour landslide, unless Mr Sunak was removed as Tory leader.
Tory peer Lord Frost, who fronted the poll, has been warned he risks losing the party whip unless he comes clean and names the anonymous money men.
And this week a senior Tory linked to Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, Sir Simon Clarke, went public with calls for his party leader to go.
Ms Badenoch said she called Sir Simon afterwards “and asked him what on earth he was doing”.
She warned the Tory party cannot keep treating prime ministers as “disposable”, as she said she was “extremely” frustrated at the speculation.
But another Boris ally, Nadine Dorries accused Kemi Badenoch of pursuing her leadership ambitions despite the denials.
On Ms Badenoch’s effective call for the plotters to shut up, Ms Dorries said: “She should take her own advice”
She also accused the business secretary and former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, seen as another leadership contender of self-interest, saying “what they are out for is themelves”.
And Tim Montgomerie, who worked for Boris Johnson in Downing Street, said Tory members watching her interview would be thinking: “I would not mind Kemi as leader”.
