Only ‘one or two’ Tory MPs plotting against Sunak, says Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch said she was ‘actually quite surprised’ that people want the Tory party to return Frank Hester’s donations. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Reports of Conservative plots against Rishi Sunak are the work of just “one or two” MPs and the party needs to unite before May’s local elections, Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, has said.

Speaking later at a business event, Sunak dismissed talk of a threat to his leadership, saying: “I’m not interested in all Westminster politics. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the future of our country.”