Guardian Exposes Kemi Badenkoch Membership Of Tory ‘Evil Plotters’ WhatsApp Group
Badenkoch is reportedly planning a party leadership run. (Press Association via AP Images)
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch is reportedly a member of a covert Conservative WhatsApp group called “Evil Plotters,” despite her public admonitions to party rebels to unite behind Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
In an exclusive published Monday, The Guardian revealed that Badenoch, alongside Michael Gove, the Levelling Up Secretary, are members of the secretive group, which seems to support Badenoch’s potential long-term aspirations of becoming party leader.
Badenkoch is consistently the favourite for next party leader, in Tory polls, but dismissed the assertion that she covets Sunak’s role as “Westminster tittle-tattle.”
Amidst these tumultuous political currents, an anonymous group of Tory donors funded a poll predicting a catastrophic electoral outcome for Sunak’s party. However, Badenoch looks to be playing the waiting game. Allies suggest she’s poised to emerge as the reasonable face of the Tory right, eschewing overt power grabs.
“Kemi won’t try to oust Rishi herself, she knows that the hand that wields the knife never wears the crown,” confided a Tory insider told the newspaper.
It’s suspected that the group’s name may ironically reference resigned Tory minister Nadine Dorries’ book, The Plot, which implicated Gove in leadership machinations.
The Guardian also points to Badenoch’s wider political manoeuvring, which extends beyond secretive chats after making James Roberts, her former campaign endorser, a special adviser.
The revelation also comes as opposition activists and politicians raise an incident from Badenkoch’s past in which she hacked Labour MP Harriet Harman’s website back in 2008, defacing her website.
The act could have landed her in jail for five years under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) but at the time no action was taken by police. Hacktivists who had been prosecuted under the law, like ex-LulzSec hacker Mustafa Al-Bassam, protested the apparent double standard.
“If a Conservative MP can admit to a computer crime on television and get away with it, then that says the law is not being enforced equally in the UK,” he said at the time.
Panellists joked about the incident on Sky News’ Sunday Morning show.
Despite the buzz, Badenoch’s spokesperson has dismissed these allegations as baseless, attributing them to a targeted smear campaign. Badenoch herself, while not outright denying her leadership ambitions, has emphasised her support for Sunak.
