𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Kemi Badenoch has been warned against doing a deal with Nigel Farage by Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. The Italian premier urged the Conservative leader to “be your own woman and stand your ground”. Ms Meloni made the comment to Mrs Badenoch as the pair, who are friends, met for a coffee in Rome on Monday to discuss issues including the economy and immigration. She told the Tory leader that “you’ve got to be yourself” and resist pressure to strike deals with other parties, according to The Times.

She also said people wrote her off at first but she is now set to become the longest-serving head of government in the 80-year history of the Italian Republic after nearly four years in power. It comes as Mrs Badenoch again ruled out doing a deal with Reform UK over the weekend, amid fears over a split in the right of British politics.

The Conservative leader insisted she would rather go back to the country and have another election if there was a hung parliament than have a “monstrous Reform/Conservative hybrid” government at Westminster.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she said: “Nigel Farage dictates what he wants depending on what he had for breakfast that day. They are all over the place, they announce one policy, they forget it the next day.

“How do I work with people like that when I am making carefully curated plans and taking a systems-based approach?

“How do you work with a man who has fallen out with every single person he has ever had to work with in every single party that he has started?

“I am not going to do that. I have to win on my own terms.”

Asked if not working with Reform could mean a possible Labour/Lib Dem coalition if there was to be a hung parliament, Mrs Badenoch insisted in those circumstances the best option would be to go back to the country and hold a fresh election.

She said: “If we get a hung parliament and people see that the parties can’t form a government, you have another election.”

She insisted: “What I want is a Conservative government, not a monstrous Reform/Conservative hybrid.”

Speaking about the election, the Tory leader made clear there would be “no deals before or after”.

Reform leader Mr Farage, who has consistently ruled out a pact with the Conservatives, said he had a “very long” conversation with Ms Meloni recently when asked about her comments on TalkTV.

He added of Mrs Badenoch: “I keep conversations with senior figures in the world private, she chooses to play the game a very different way.”