“I believe that if Iran and the US and Israel are in conflict, even if people believe that the US started it – I don't, I think Iran probably was preparing something – even if you think so, Iran is not our friend, and we need to be very clear eyed about that, and not be naïve”, she added.
The Conservative Party leader then accused the prime minister of being motivated by potential electoral losses in constituencies with a large numbers of Muslim voters.
At the 2024 general election Labour suffered a number of defeats and near losses to candidates standing on explicitly pro-Gaza platforms.
“Keir Starmer is trying to appease a sectarian vote. In particular, there are a lot of his cabinet, a lot of his ministers, people like Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips, who would lose their seats because of increasing sectarianism in their constituencies. And I think that they pander to that in a way that a leader should not we should be looking after the British national interest, not particular constituency interest.
“The way to tackle this is to root out the sectarianism, root out the separatism, not pander to it. You pander to it, and it will only grow.”
Badenoch went on to accuse Starmer of lacking conviction.
“Even his own people are saying that he doesn't really know what he believes so he's going to be led by polls and backbenchers. His backbenchers are very unhappy with him”, noting the scandal regarding the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite his relationship with paedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Last week, government documents revealed that Starmer was warned about the “reputational risk” of appointing the New Labour grandee.
Badenoch accused Starmer of “lying” to MPs about what he knew about the appointment of Mandelson and that as a result of the crisis that has engulfed his government he is desperately appeasing his backbenchers in order to cling onto office in Downing Street.
“He's trying to keep his job, and if his hard left back benchers are saying, ‘this is what you should do, this is what you need to say, you need to pander to this group’, if he sees the Green Party getting votes, I'm afraid that he will pander”, she said, adding: “The Conservative Party does not pander, certainly not under my leadership.”
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Kemi Badenoch with challah rolls in Grodz bakery (Image: The JC).[Missing Credit]
She also conceded that one of the mistakes that the Conservatives made in office was “was trying to be nice to every single person all the time, instead of doing what was right, even when it was difficult”.
Badenoch expanded: “Doing the easy thing just so you can have a break means that you're storing up bigger problems for later on. I want people to know that I'm the kind of leader who does the right thing based on conviction. I will also explain to people why I am making those decisions, and it won't be because of fear. It won't be because of weakness, it will be because I believe it is the right thing for Britain, for the people of this country, for our national interest.”
The Tory leader spoke to the JC as part of her visit to north west London where the Conservatives are hoping to regain control of Barnet Council from Labour. She was accompanied by Conservative Friends of Israel’s honorary president Lord Polak, former MP Mike Freer and local activists and candidates.
The leader of the opposition went behind the tills at Kosher Kingdom, into the kitchen at Coco Bakery and stocked the shelves of Grodz bakery with bagels, challah rolls and doughnuts.
Badenoch told the JC she thought Britain had become a less safe country for Jews “because our tolerance has been exploited”.
She added: “I think we need to be very, very tough, enforce things, enforce things in a way that perhaps we have not enforced them before.”
Challenged that while in office the Conservatives had failed to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), she hinted at internal disagreements within the previous government about the approach to Iran.
“I wasn't home secretary or foreign secretary”, she said, adding that “many of us” had pressed for the group to be proscribed but to no avail.
“There were reasons given. I heard rumours about keeping diplomatic channels open … for particular reasons”.
However, she added that she would “work with” Sir Keir Starmer and support efforts to proscribe the group.
She went on to praise the intelligence and security services’ role in keeping the Jewish community in Britain safe and said that legislation brought in by the last government, including the National Security Act, helped being able to tackle threats.
However, in light of the terrorist attack on Heaton Park synagogue on Yom Kippur last year, Badenoch said that more needed to be done to tackle Islamic extremism and the threats it poses to Britain’s Jews.
