Burnham 'overwhelmed' as PM and Farage is a 'grumpy grandpa,' Kemi Badenoch tells LBC

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The Conservative leader was taking callers' questions on LBC's Call Kemi and was asked by host Iain Dale what she thought of the new Prime Minister.

She said that her first impression of Mr Burnham was after the Heaton Park synagogue attack, in which he was "very empathetic" and they had a "good, cordial conversation".

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Mrs Badenoch added: "I quite like him as an individual. His politics, though, are very far from mine."

She later bluntly assessed Mr Burnham as seeming "quite overwhelmed by the job".

The Tory said: "I think that he thought it would be a bit easier. He doesn't like having to answer questions, whether from journalists or Prime Minister's Questions.

"And some of it is understandable. I mean, he lost his dad last week, which would overwhelm anyone. When I lost my dad four and a half years ago, I didn't go to work for two weeks because I was just beside myself with grief.

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"He's just lost his dad, he's had to go meet the President of the US... He probably feels like he's drinking from a firehose."

Mrs Badneoch saved her more stark assessment for Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Referring to a online spat she had with Mr Farage about a post about the ongoing asylum row in Piddington, Oxfordshire, she said: "It's got to the point where my office now call [Mr Farage] Grumpy Grandpa."

In a later exchange, the Conservative leader both categorically ruled out any coalition with Reform - before going further to suggest that defectors between the parties would never be allowed back into her party.