BREAKING Badenoch says Britain is not being governed and calls for Labour MPs to discuss a vote of no confidence in the PM

Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch holds press conference after forcing the Government to release the files regarding the Prime Minister’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the UK.

https://www.conservatives.com/news/madelson-files-press-conference

Full text of speech here:

Britain is not being governed.

Last night in Downing Street, what were Keir Starmer and his team doing?

They were not thinking about the future of NATO…
They were not up late talking about sorting out the cost of living …

They were not planning to reindustrialise Britain with cheaper energy.

They were… yet again… desperately ringing round Labour MPs trying to save his job.

The Labour Party came into government just 18 months ago but with no plan for this country.

And in the last 18 months, we have seen exactlywhat happens when a government has no ideawhat it is doing in power…and no idea what it stands for….

They have made a series of random decisions.

Not a single one of which was in their manifesto.

Snatching Winter Fuel Payments. Taxing Family farms. Mandatory digital ID.

Surrendering the Chagos Islands.

A disastrous Budget….for Benefits Street.
Taxing jobs, pubs and businesses – and making this country poorer.

Every. single. one of these decisions… they have got wrong.

It is bad enough to have a government preoccupied with cleaning up its own messes.

But what’s worse… is the reason these mistakes keep happening.

Because every single one of them… comes back to the judgement of one man.

Keir Starmer.

At a time when Britain needs a leader, we have a Prime Minister who makes the wrong decision again…and again.

For months….I have been pressing the Prime Minister about his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador.

And Yesterday in Parliament, I finally forced him to admit the shocking truth.

HE KNEW.

He knew that Mandelson had a continuing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

He knew Mandelson had stayed in his house while Epstein was in jail for child prostitution.

The Prime Minister knew all this and appointed Peter Mandelson anyway to the most prestigious job in the diplomatic service.

The Prime Minister brushed aside the security warnings.

He turned a blind eye…to what he knew….about Mandelson’s association…..with one of the world’s most notorious paedophiles.

And instead of standing up and taking full responsibility for this disastrous appointment,

The Prime Minister is trying to make himself out to be the victim.

Nobody is buying it.

This morning Cabinet ministers are out there defending the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson – still claiming that it was a rational appointment.

They should be ashamed.

And it’s not just Peter Mandelson.

The Prime Minister has surrounded himself with people who do not have Britain’s best interests at heart.

Like Jonathan Powell.
Like Lord Hermer.

People advising him to surrender the Chagos Islands…simply to impress lawyers at North London dinner parties….

People advising him to let the Chinese build an enormous Spy Hub in the centre of London.

People advising him to drag our brave veterans through the courts while terrorists walk free.

Keir Starmer is either too weak, or too foolish, to see the folly of what he is agreeing to.

Even the Health Secretary has said there’s a toxic culture in Number 10.

Cabinet Ministers briefing against each other…not focused on their jobs…

We have constant u-turns

This is not just a Westminster bubble story.

Britain is not being governed.

And this is having an impact on the lives and the livelihoods of people across the country.

Britain is getting poorer….and Britain is getting weaker.

Because of Keir Starmer’s bad judgement.

It can’t go on.

It is now up to Labour MPs to do the right thing.

I know there are many who are horrified by what has happened.

We saw that in the House of Commons yesterday.

They might now expect the Prime Minister to take responsibility…

…but we know he won’t.

He will have to be dragged out of No10.

So I am making them an offer.

If they want the change they know the country needs, come and speak to my whips…and let’s talk seriously about a vote of no confidence, to force the moment.

Keir Starmer’s position is clearly untenable.

It is for Labour MPs to decide when he goes.

It’s a question of when not if he goes.

Just now Keir Starmer has given a speech supposedly about local funding. 

No doubt another mission, or pledge, or milestone – made up by an aide yesterday afternoon….yet another relaunch that in a week’s time no one will remember.

He apologised for believing Mandelson’s lies. That’s not good enough.

What he should apologise for…is ignoring security advice and vetting that showed him Mandelson should never have been appointed in the first place.

He cannot bring himself to do that because his self-righteousness is his greatest weakness.

And what else have the British public got on offer?

Fresh from announcing a pubs policy this week with a £10 billion black hole in it.

Nigel Farage is in now Wales….announcing his new Welsh leader… after the last one was sent to prison in November for taking bribes from Russia.

We all know a Reform government would just be more of the same.

More incompetence. More dodgy appointments. More drama… when what this country needs is some serious government.

There is only one party in Britain today that is actually serious.

One that is doing the deep thinking and the hard work…to fix our country’s problems.

And be ready to deliver the second we come into office.

That is my Conservative Party.

Yes we made mistakes but we acknowledge them and we have learned from them.

We are on the side of hard-working people.

People who do the right thing… and are fed up with a Government that isn’t working for them.

We are on the side of those who play by the rules. We are not on the side of people claiming benefits when they could and should be working.

We are not on the side of spivs and scammers who think the rules don’t apply to them.

Britain is not being governed.

We need to show that we can do better.

That a government with a plan can fix the things going wrong in our country.

That is our alternative.

Our strong borders plan.

Our cheap power plan.

Our £47 billion savings plan.

Our plan to abolish stamp duty

Our plan to fix the high street.

Our plan to Get Britain Working again.

This is what we believe in.

This is the change WE WILL DELIVER.”