{"id":102489,"date":"2024-07-26T12:14:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T12:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/26\/kemi-badenoch-accuses-rival-campaign-of-dirty-tricks\/"},"modified":"2024-07-26T12:14:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T12:14:18","slug":"kemi-badenoch-accuses-rival-campaign-of-dirty-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/26\/kemi-badenoch-accuses-rival-campaign-of-dirty-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch accuses rival campaign of dirty tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/46aa\/live\/398c8790-4b2c-11ef-9f80-b9f774b7abe0.jpg?resize=1024,576&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Kemi Badenoch accuses rival campaign of dirty tricks\" title=\"Kemi Badenoch accuses rival campaign of dirty tricks\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Kemi Badenoch has accused an unnamed rival campaign of using &#8220;dirty tricks&#8221; by spreading &#8220;dishonest&#8221; and damaging claims about her to the media, ahead of an expected bid for the Conservative leadership.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The former business secretary is widely seen as a frontrunner to take over from Rishi Sunak, but has yet to announce her candidacy.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Despite this, she has claimed the rival campaign sent a \u201cdirty dossier&#8221; to journalists and spread rumours she had secretly set up a leadership campaign website. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Ms Badenoch, who came fourth when Liz Truss won the leadership in September 2022, <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KemiBadenoch\/status\/1816533845480734976\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">stated in a social media post<!-- --><\/a>: &#8220;We can do better than this, and I will be saying and writing more about how in due course.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">On Thursday, the Conservative-leaning magazine <!-- --><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spectator.co.uk\/article\/could-these-be-the-online-comments-of-young-kemi-badenoch\/\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">The Spectator reported<!-- --><\/a> a profile going by the name of &#8220;Kemi&#8221; on a Nigerian website in the mid-2000s made a series of &#8220;direct, sometimes rude, often confrontational&#8221; comments.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">These described Labour MP Diane Abbott as a &#8220;hypocrite&#8221;, and argued about cultural and racial issues.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">At the time, Ms Badenoch, who was raised in Nigeria, was studying for a law degree at Birkbeck University in London.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In her posts, she did not say whether she had made the comments &#8211; but noted they were &#8220;from 20 years ago&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She also rejected claims sent to journalists that she was running a \u201cKemi 4 Leader\u201d website currently in maintenance mode.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She said she would &#8220;never run a site with such obvious errors&#8221; such as &#8220;using expensive proprietary images without paying for their use&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Ms Badenoch accused an unnamed journalist of contacting civil servants attempting to find &#8220;anyone willing to make bullying accusations about me\u201d.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cOne of them said her message was effectively encouraging them to break the civil service code,\u201d she said.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Mrs Badenoch added: \u201cI\u2019m observing all this from a distance, as it\u2019s the first day of my kids\u2019 school holiday.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cBut these three examples show how so much of the discourse across the political spectrum is obsessed with the petty and the puerile.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">\u201cWe can do better than this, and I will be saying and writing more about how in due course.\u201d<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The 44-year-old was first elected as an MP in 2017 and emerged as a darling of the right of her party during her years as women and equalities minister under Mr Sunak.  <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She previously ran for Conservative leader following the resignation of Boris Johnson and came fourth despite starting the race with a relatively low-profile.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">She is now seen as a frontrunner &#8211; consistently attracting high approval ratings among party members in surveys conducted by Tory-supporting website Conservative Home.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/czrj832e973o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kemi Badenoch has accused an unnamed rival campaign of using &#8220;dirty tricks&#8221; by spreading &#8220;dishonest&#8221; and damaging claims about her to the media, ahead of an expected bid for the Conservative leadership. The former business secretary is widely seen as a frontrunner to take over from Rishi Sunak, but has yet to announce her candidacy. 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