Kemi Badenoch, not Lindsay Hoyle, is the one MPs should be worrying about

The business secretary, the subject of a timely New European profile by Marie Le Conte that revealed her many flaws is at the centre of several claims about the accuracy of her some of her statements. The least publicised was aired at by Labour’s Ben Bradshaw at prime minister’s questions shortly before it all kicked off, and involves whether or not Badenoch – who is also minister for women and equalities – had engaged “extensively” with LGBT groups.

Bradshaw said, “In December, the Cabinet minister for equalities told this House that she had engaged, and I quote, ‘extensively’ with LGBT organisations since her appointment 18 months ago. A freedom-of-information answer published this week reveals that in fact the minister hasn’t met a single LGBT organisation, but has met two fringe groups that actively campaign against transgender rights.”

Badenoch is also involved in a disagreement with Henry Staunton, the former chair of the Post office, who she fired. Although “disagreement” is too mild.

To be fair she is screaming “liar, liar pants on fire” with considerable venom in a way that makes the Derry Girls look dignified. While Staunton is just quietly releasing detailed contemporaneous notes which suggest that she is the one being “economical with the truth”. 

Rishi Sunak even failed to back her claims that Staunton was a liar at PMQs. That is not a good omen; he will be offering her his full support next.

The business secretary seems to have also upset the Canadians, something which is quite difficult to do as they are awfully nice. Badenoch was supposed to be negotiating a free trade agreement with Canada, but she pulled out of the talks over the issue of hormones in beef – the Canadians use them, we don’t like them.

This matters because the existing trade agreement with Canada is the one that the EU negotiated, and we just rolled over. It needs renegotiating. Key parts run out in weeks, tariffs have already been placed on British cheese exports to Canada and car exports look likely to be hit too, from April. 

But here is the rub, the person in charge of UK business, knowing full well that unilaterally cancelling the talks over hormones means other sectors will suffer if a deal isn’t done, has insisted that the talks are still continuing, Schrödinger’s Negotiations, if you will. 

Just last month she told parliament that the talks were ongoing. That was news to the Canadians. 

So much so that the Canadian high commissioner in London Ralph Goodale, went as far as writing to the business select committee to insist Badenoch’s talks have not happened. His letter says, “As far as I’m aware, since the UK announced its pause on January 25, there have been neither negotiations nor technical discussions with respect to any of the outstanding issues.”

This is very clear and quite exceptional. The Canadians could have kept quiet, been diplomatic and rolled their eyes. But they decided to correct the business secretary publicly. This is as close as diplomats get to saying their host government’s minister is lying through her teeth, to Parliament. 

I have little doubt that Badenoch will try to claim that talks about talks are continuing somewhere or that she bumped into someone in a corridor somewhere who is Canadian and had a chat. The obvious conclusion that many will draw, however, is the Business Secretary may not be telling the whole truth.

The bigger problem is that everyone from the Canadian government to the head of the Post Office obviously now counts their fingers after shaking hands with a government minister. They keep notes, they record meetings meticulously, they cover their backs, leave a paper trail and they listen to everything government ministers say very, very carefully. 

That is far more serious than the foot stamping of a business secretary who seems to believe that righteous indignation – even when there are questions over you being right – is the best way to defuse a situation.

Because this means no one with any common sense or a sense of self preservation, not even our Commonwealth friends, trusts this government.  We will pay for this for years to come; the price is the reputation of the country.

And this is the woman who is the bookies’ favourite to be the next leader of the Conservative Party. How far will they drag the country down with them before they go?

You can read more from Jonty on Substack at Jonty’s Jottings.