Kemi Badenoch Backer Says Rishi Sunak's Approach To The Tory Manifesto Was "Absolutely Shocking"

A former Conservative MP and minister who is working on Kemi Badenoch's leadership campaign has criticised Rishi Sunak's "absolutely shocking" approach to producing the party's most recent manifesto.

Rachel Maclean, who until 4 July was the Tory MP for Redditch and a former housing minister, said of "recent manifestos" it had been "a few people who've just left university who are friends of the current leader" writing the document — in remarks seemingly referring to the former prime minister and his advisers.

Maclean made the comments in a virtual meeting with grassroot supporters of Badenoch at the start of September. She was speaking alongside Lee Rowley, another former Conservative MP who is backing the 'Renewal 2030' campaign to support the former business and trade secretary's bid to succeed Sunak.

In remarks seen by PoliticsHome, Maclean said that Badenoch had not been "coming out with massive lists of policies" during the contest because the Conservatives had to be "realistic" about their situation after their historic defeat to Keir Starmer's Labour in July.

 "We are not in government, my friends. We are not in government," she told members.

"We might like some of the policies that we individually think would be the thing, but we are not going to be anywhere near government for four years. 

"Yes, as we get closer to that [the next general election], whoever is the Leader of the Opposition will have to have a policy, but you cannot sit here now in September 2024 and have a policy about, for example, immigration, because we have no idea what Labour's going to do over the next five years."

She added that the result of the General Election means that the party is unable to "stop" the Starmer Government from doing what it