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

Business secretary dismisses reports of plot and rejects calls for her party to return donations from Frank Hester

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 argued.

In a sometimes combative media round, Badenoch also said the Tories did not need to return £10m in donations from Frank Hester, saying that it was only the media that were still interested in his comments about Diane Abbott, widely condemned as racist and misogynist.