Kemi Badenoch appeared to hint at her future leadership ambitions during a business debate, saying “we will talk about leadership things after an election”.
The business and trade secretary, who has long been touted as a potential future Tory leader, told the Bloomberg business debate: “I’m already the secretary of (state for) business and trade, and it’s actually been the job of a lifetime. I love it. There’s no better job.
“It is a lot easier and a lot less pressured than being prime minister.”
Badenoch, who also holds the equalities brief, and stood to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader in the race won by Liz Truss, is seen by some as a possible successor to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, should he lose the general election on 4 July.
“The fact of the matter is, I stood and I lost,” she said. “And what terrifies me now is not not becoming leader, it is seeing Labour come in.”
The minister continued: “This is one of the things that I’ve found most difficult doing this job, that people tend not to know what it is, because I’m always asked the leadership question.
“We’re so interested in the personalities, in the gossip and so on…We need to focus on this election. The choice is going to be between us or between them.
“Be afraid if it is them, is all I would say. And we will talk about leadership things after an election, but not before.”
Badenoch was first elected to Parliament in 2017, in Saffron Walden, after representing her party on the London Assembly.