Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has claimed defections from her party are a “good thing” because the people leaving “don’t believe in conservatism”.
Nigel Farage’s Reform – which claimed to have 11,000 members north of the border – has taken a steady stream of councillors from the Tories in Scotland in recent months, most recently on Thursday when Aberdeenshire representative Lauren Knight made the move.
The shift comes after the party surged in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse Holyrood by-election, rising to third and coming close to the SNP in the seat, won by Labour’s Davy Russell.
But despite the perceived threat to the Tories from Reform, Ms Badenoch said she did not have an issue with people leaving for the party.
“Reform are not a centre-right party,” she told journalists at the Scottish Tory conference.
“This is a party that’s talking about nationalising oil and gas.
“This is a party that wants to increase benefits at a time when the benefits bill is so high.
“So if Nigel Farage is taking out of the Conservative Party the people who are not Conservatives, then I’m quite fine with that.
“One of the things that we ned to do is make sure that people see an authentic Conservative Party, we don’t want people who want nationalisation and more benefits.”
She later added: “If offering a very, very clear kind of conservatism is now sending out the people from our party who don’t believe in our values in the long run, that’s a good thing.
“There is no point in us just accumulating lots of people who don’t believe in conservatism just so we can win, then when we get into government, we can’t govern.
“That’s what we saw happen before, that’s what we’re seeing with Labour, they don’t have a plan.
“They just had a plan to win elections and now they’re going round and round in circles.
“We want to have people who believe in our agenda, not just people who want to be politicians.”
The Tory leader also hit out at former Tory MSP Jamie Greene – who defected to the Lib Dems earlier this year, attacking his support for the Scottish Government’s controversial – and ultimately blocked – gender reforms.
“How anyone could have supported what was obviously a mad piece of legislation and think themselves a Conservative is beyond me,” she said.
Former party leader Jackson Carlaw and current health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane both also backed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Responding to the Tory leader, Mr Greene said: “Ms Badenoch must know by now that political success comes from persuasion, not arrogant pomposity. This ‘good riddance’ attitude is precisely the reason so many have left the party in droves, myself included.
“Now it looks like she wants to bizarrely cast off two current serving Scottish Conservative MSPs for not being conservative enough, due to their support for gender reforms.”
Speaking as she made her first appearance at the Scottish Tory conference since taking over as leader, Ms Badenoch declared Nigel Farage a “threat to the union”.
“If he wants the SNP to have another five years, then that is a threat to the union,” she said.
She pointed to an interview Mr Farage gave to the Times earlier this year where he suggested his party could side with the SNP ahead of Labour, but he added that Scotland was “not going to leave the United Kingdom, it’s not going to happen in a month of Sundays”.
In her speech, the Tory leader said: “In April this year, Nigel Farage said he would be fine with the SNP winning another five years in power.
“He’s fine with another five years of higher bills, longer waiting lists, declining school standards, gender madness, and ultimately, independence.”
Addressing members of the party, she said “Scottish people deserve better” than another five years of the SNP – the party currently leading in the polls ahead of next year’s election – while also announcing her party would scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas if it wins back power at the next UK-wide vote.
While the SNP may be in the lead, some polls suggest Reform could beat Labour to second place and push the Tories to fourth.
A pleasure welcoming @KemiBadenoch to Scottish Tory conference.
— Russell Findlay MSP (@RussellFindlay1) June 13, 2025
Together, we’re fighting for a common-sense future for our country 🇬🇧🏴#SCC25 pic.twitter.com/mo08tg7w9T
“In April this year, Nigel Farage said he would be fine with the SNP winning another five years in power,” she said in her speech.
“He’s fine with another five years of higher bills, longer waiting lists, declining school standards, gender madness, and ultimately, independence.”
Addressing her first Scottish conference since taking on the top job, Ms Badenoch claimed: “Reform will vote to let the SNP in, Conservatives will only ever vote to get the nationalists out.”
Part of her “positive vision of the future” includes “standing up” for the North Sea oil and gas industry, with Mrs Badenoch claiming that by increasing the energy profits levy – also known as the windfall tax – the Tories had introduced, Labour is “killing the oil and gas industry”.
Speaking about the levy, she said: “Frankly if it is allowed to remain in place until 2030, as is Labour’s current plan, there will be no industry left to tax.
“Thousands will have been made unemployed and all the while we import more gas from overseas – from the very same basin in which we are banned from drilling.”
She called on the UK Government to remove the energy profits levy, as she added that the Tories would also “scrap the ban on new licences” for oil and gas developments that has been imposed since Labour came to power.
“We will champion our own industry,” Mrs Badenoch told supporters.
“We will let this great British, great Scottish industry thrive, grow and create jobs – ensuring our energy security for generations to come and making Scotland richer in the process.”
