Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch didn’t hold back as she unleashed fury on Prime Minister Keir Starmer as she told GB News that he has “serious questions to answer”. The news channel announced a breaking update as she issued a scathing remark to state that Starmer is “either lying or incompetent”. Badenoch’s attack on Starmer comes as she called for him to resign following the Peter Mandelson vetting row, prompting her to ask: “What else is going on? What else are we being lied to about?”
She fumed: “They’re saying it’s not lies it’s just incompetence, what else are they being incompetent about?” Badenoch shared her concerns about threats to national security as it emerged that Mandelson failed vetting, but the Foreign Office overruled the decision. In a bombshell question, Badenoch was asked if she believes Starmer will still be Prime Minister by the end of next week.
She firmly stated that the decision is very much dependent on Labour MPs, adding: “We lost the last election, the public gave Labour a huge landslide majority, we don’t have the numbers as Conservatives.”
However, Badenoch noted there are some things that the MPs need to consider as she said: “They need to ask themselves if they want to be complicit in his cover up or if they want to be honest with the public.”
She was then asked about her thoughts on Starmer’s role in the Strait of Hormuz opening, to which she skewered him in a rant and fumed: “All he has really done is sit on the fence and have meetings, let’s be honest about what’s happened here.”
Keir Starmer has made his stance clear after issuing a statement following the news that Mandelson was appointed despite failing the initial vetting process.
Speaking to journalists in Paris on Friday, Starmer said: “That I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he was appointed is staggering. That I wasn’t told that he had failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable.
“Not only was I not told, no minister was told, and I’m absolutely furious about that. What I intend to do is to go to Parliament on Monday to set out all the relevant facts in true transparency, so Parliament has the full picture. Number 10 was not told that he had failed security vetting – that is completely unacceptable.”
Mandelson had been announced as the UK’s ambassador to the US in December 2024, before in-depth vetting was carried out.
