Badenoch aide's vulgar term against female politician

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.

- Rowena Mason

Badenoch has Oliver Cooper on her team despite it having emerged in legal action that he 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 to drum up support for her bid, announced on Monday. In her email she 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 mental ill health.