Kemi Badenoch has brought in a Conservative councillor to help on her leadership bid who referred to a female politician in a vulgar manner in a message to another colleague.
Badenoch has Tory councillor Oliver Cooper on her team despite it having emerged in legal action that he had sent messages in 2017 about a female councillor to another activist calling her offensive names.
Among other things, he called her a “cunt” and a “fuckwit”.
Badenoch named Cooper as a point of contact on her leadership team when she emailed Tory councillors this week aiming to drum up support for her bid, announced on Monday.
In her email to councillors, Badenoch said: “There has been too much fighting, too much back-biting and too much drama in Westminster. Our party must, once again, be based on honesty, straight-talking and effectiveness in Westminster, just as it is all across the country.”
The existence of the messages was made public in legal action in 2020 when a Tory activist unsuccessfully tried to sue Hampstead Conservatives, Cooper and others for removing him from the candidates’ list while he was suffering from mental ill health.
The activist’s court action was thrown out by the judge, who ruled it was brought in the wrong court and criticised the activist’s conduct towards the defendants by using threatening behaviour to try to get himself reinstated as a candidate.
Friends of Cooper said the messages were sent privately to the activist, and were an example of him letting off steam and trying to cheer up a friend who was suffering difficult times.
Asked about the messages and his role on Badenoch’s team, Cooper said: “I deeply regret sending those messages, but they were sent privately to someone who needed support. They do not reflect the way I think or act, then or now. That same person has waged a six-year campaign of vicious harassment against me, which led to a high court judge condemning the individual in the strongest terms and awarding me full costs.”
A spokesperson for the Kemi Badenoch campaign said: “These messages are eight years old and were sent to someone who has since been found by the high court to have abused the court system to pursue a vendetta against Oliver. It is disgraceful that the Guardian is fuelling what the high court described in its judgement as a ‘reprehensible’ attempt to harm Oliver’s reputation.
“Kemi Badenoch does not care what the Guardian thinks, given that they’re a proponent of the cancel culture that she has repeatedly spoken out against, and this is a particularly nasty example the Guardian is pursuing against someone who is just volunteering for something he cares about and is doing a great job.”
Badenoch’s campaign has been under the spotlight in recent days after the Guardian revealed she has been accused of creating an intimidating atmosphere in the government department she used to run, with some colleagues describing it as toxic.
Sources alleged that at least three senior officials in Badenoch’s private office felt in effect pushed out by what they claimed was “bullying and traumatising” behaviour by Badenoch during the 17 months she ran the department before the Conservatives lost the election. Badenoch has flatly denied behaving in that way.
In response to those claims this week, a spokesperson for Badenoch said the allegations were “completely false and a flagrant smear”. They confirmed that the business secretary “had to let go of” some senior officials and suggested she had found examples of “underperformance, complaints and bad behaviour” within her department. They added that she has “high standards and expectations”.
The shadow communities secretary and former business secretary has long been the frontrunner to be the next leader of the Conservatives, but Robert Jenrick, the former communities secretary, is advancing on her lead.
Jenrick has displaced Suella Braverman as the favoured candidate of the right of the party after she decided not to run. Other candidates include Tom Tugendhat and Mel Stride from the more centrist wing, and James Cleverly and Priti Patel, both former allies of Boris Johnson.
