Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick just claimed his rival Kemi Badenoch made a “mistake” when she criticised him – only to then hit out at her, too.
Jenrick and Badenoch are the only two candidates left in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader.
Tory members have to cast their votes by the end of this month and the official winner will be announced on November 2.
On Sunday, Badenoch took a swipe at Jenrick by telling The Telegraph: “Integrity matters … with me you’d have a leader where there’s no scandal. I was never sacked for anything, I didn’t have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety.”
This is presumably a reference to Jenrick’s involvement in a 2020 planning dispute when he was housing secretary under Boris Johnson, a role which he was later sacked from in a reshuffle.
Speaking to Times Radio on Monday morning, Jenrick criticised Badenoch for speaking “ill” of her rival.
“I think it was a mistake by Kemi,” he said, alleging he thinks Tory members are “sick of the drama”.
He continued: “They want to end all these excuses. They want to stop the squabbling and the backbiting. They want the party to unite and to be a team. That is what I want to do.”
He added: “So I am not going to speak ill of fellow Conservatives. I think if we do that, that will be the end of the Conservative Party.”
But Jenrick then decided to dish out an insult of his own, adding: “If my rival, you know, starts to deal with personal insults, that is because she doesn’t really have any policies to talk about.
“And I want to be talking about policies. That is what this debate should be about.”
The former minister then said: “Let’s not go down the rabbit hole of drama and infighting. We’ve had way too much, that’s not my way, that’s not how I would conduct myself if I’m leader of the party.”
He claimed ultimately they are “grown ups,” and recalled how the Conservative Party is “the world’s oldest political party”.
He said: “Hitherto, it’s most successful. It is not a Twitter account.”
The Tories suffered a noteworthy defeat in July’s general election, losing the highest number of seats of any UK party in history (251), meaning they now have just 121 representatives in parliament.