The ‘Evil Plotters’ WhatsApp group is a joke – but it could kill the Tory party

The plot reflects the deep ideological split in the party – and is a sure sign of how far down the slippery slope of Tory Corbynism the party has slid, writes John Rentoul

Kemi Badenoch is reportedly a member of an ‘Evil Plotters’ WhatsApp group (PA Wire)

Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary and betting favourite to be the next Conservative leader, has been unmasked as a member of a WhatsApp group called “Evil Plotters”. This illustrates the danger in politics of a sense of humour: the news was reported by The Guardian as if it were an admission that she is both evil and a plotter.

It certainly seemed to contrast with her warning in a weekend TV interview against Tories “stirring” trouble with talk of her replacing Rishi Sunak. But it should take only a moment’s thought to realise that she was sincere in telling the BBC that people who put her name forward as an alternative leader were “not my friends”. She does not want to take over a few months before a likely election defeat.

The trouble is that she does want to be leader after the election, so calling the WhatsApp Group “Evil Plotters” isn’t wholly untrue. What is worth noting is that Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, is another member of the group, despite what I am told was a genuine cooling in relations between Gove and Badenoch, after Gove, who is divorced, had an affair with an acquaintance of hers.