Letter: The Lib Dems Should Apologise for Their Misleading Letter

Published on: 3 Sep, 2026
Updated on: 3 Sep, 2026

From H Trevor Jones

In response to: Truth in Politics Begins with Accurate Facts

I haven’t seen the Spectator article in question, so cannot comment on the accuracy of references to it. But writing as a non-party person who likes to discuss politics with sensible people in any party, I note that Neil O’Brien’s letter says “Kemi Badenoch did not say that she was prepared to make Nigel Farage Prime Minister.” whereas the the LibDem headline pictured with Neil’s letter says “Conservatives are ready to make Nigel Farage Prime Minister.”

So that’s no contradiction, as Kemi is only one Conservative, who I would assume doesn’t want anyone to take her possible future place PM. But I believe there are still quite a few other Conservatives, some of whom may have different opinions from Kemi.

Looking more closely, I do however notice the smaller print in the letter from Zöe Franklin MP says: “… Kemi Badenoch said she would be willing to make Nigel Farage Prime Minister…”, which does sound rather curious, possibly misreported, or else not to be taken literally, as I don’t think Kemi would have that power anyway, not least because it is up the King on the basis of the advice of whoever is the current PM at the time, presumably a Labour Party person at least until the General Election.

Anyway, as part of keeping politics more clean and friendly and cooperative, as seems to be desired by Andy Burnham as current PM (and he’s much to be commended for that), I think the Lib Dems should accept the Conservatives’ correction and publicly apologise for the error or misunderstanding (whichever it was).

Editor’s note: Zöe Franklin was invited to respond on the issue.