Kemi Badenoch rejects Reform UK pact in Conservative conference speech

Kemi Badenoch rejected calls for the Conservatives to join forces with Reform UK in her conference speech in Birmingham on Wednesday, 7 October 2026. The Conservative leader said her party must not let Nigel Farage’s party ‘take us backwards’, making the prospect of a pact a clear dividing line as the parties compete for voters.

Addressing calls to ‘Unite the right’, Badenoch told delegates: ‘we are not uniting with that’, according to the Associated Press, which reported a standing ovation. She also said: ‘We must not let these people take us backwards. That is not the country we are.’ The remarks made explicit her rejection of an electoral alliance with Reform.

Why Badenoch ruled out a Reform UK pact

Badenoch told the conference she did not want to live in a country run by people who ‘debate whether my mixed-race children are English’. AP reported that she denounced race-based nationalism among some Reform members. Those words explain the distinction she sought to draw between the Conservatives and Reform; they are her political case for rejecting a pact.

Her speech followed a BBC interview published on 6 October in which she said she would rather have another general election than strike a deal with Reform if no party secured an overall majority. Asked about a scenario in which the Conservatives were the largest party and Reform had a significant presence in a hung parliament, she replied: ‘If you want Conservative, you have to vote Conservative.’ She said she wanted Reform voters to return to her party.

How the Conservatives and Reform UK compare

The Conservatives are trying to recover from their 2024 general election defeat, which left them with 121 of the House of Commons’ 650 seats, according to AP. The agency reported that several former and serving lawmakers had defected from the Conservatives to Reform and that Reform had performed strongly in local elections. That record gives Badenoch’s appeal to Reform voters an immediate political purpose: her party is seeking support that has moved elsewhere.

AP said polls at the time of her speech consistently put the Conservatives behind both the governing Labour Party and Reform. The BBC’s report the previous day also described polling that suggested a hung parliament at the next election, with Labour the largest party, followed by Reform and the Conservatives. Those figures describe current surveys, rather than a forecast that any particular coalition or second election will occur.

Badenoch presented her party as recovering from its internal disputes and scandals, AP reported. The agency also noted little evidence that voters were returning to the Conservatives. Her refusal to work with Reform therefore comes while the Conservatives are still trying to establish themselves as an alternative to Labour in the eyes of voters.

What the speech means for a future election

The conference remarks state Badenoch’s position on an alliance. They do not settle what the next House of Commons will look like or how parties would respond to its result. The next UK general election must be held by August 2029, the BBC reported. Badenoch’s stated preference for another vote if no party has an overall majority is a political position, not a decision that an election has been called.

The Reform dispute was one part of a wider pitch. AP reported that Badenoch also argued for lower taxes, reduced welfare spending and looser regulation, while criticising Prime Minister Andy Burnham. For now, the clearest change from her conference address is the public, explicit rejection of calls to unite with Reform, following her refusal in the BBC interview to contemplate a deal in a hung parliament.