How many times is Kemi Badenoch going let Nigel Farage kick her butt (figuratively speaking) and make a complete fool of her? She might as well stand in front of him with arms outstretched shouting: “Hurt me, humiliate me, let the world know how terrified I am of you and Reform which is why I keep shooting my mouth off before I think.” So, this week’s the foot-in-mouth moment came when dismissed Farage as “just a reality TV star” who “you wouldn’t want running your life”.

She was of course referring to the Reform leader’s appearance in I’m a Celeb in 2023 when he was paid a million quid (so huge was his appeal) and also managed to persuade hordes of new members to join Reform together with a generation of young TikTokers. Farage immediately hit back and made her look petty and stupid highlighting her snobbery and condescension about him appearing on a reality TV show because what she was actually doing was poo-pooing the populist vote?

And of course she was which is why, under her, the Tories will forever remain in the political toilet as the Fuddy Duddy party no one wants to vote for.

But just why is she so sneering about people and parties with populist appeal? She surely knows THAT’S what wins elections not boring parties peopled by charisma-free politicians like Ms Badenoch who has done nothing of note since she won the leadership in November last year.

Is it because SHE’S devoid of populist appeal? Is it because she doesn’t have the same Pied Piper effect on voters that Farage has?

Because currently she’s looking like a hopeless victim of the green-eyed monster consumed by plain old fashioned jealousy of Farage. Which is maybe why she bridled this week when asked if the Tories and Reform would ever join forces.

She dismissed the idea saying: “Having appeal doesn’t mean people want you running their lives. This isn’t I’m a Celebrity or Strictly. You don’t vote for the person you’re watching and then switch off when the show’s over. We’ve got to move away from politics as showbusiness.”

Which shows how utterly naïve she is. People DO vote for people (and politicians) they see on television. Very often they DO vote for them because of their performance on a particular subject and they DO form their opinions on them depending on how they come across on the box.

And if politics isn’t a form of showbusiness why are so many politicians gagging to be on TV?

Maybe Ms Badenoch needs to look at her party’s membership which currently stands at a piddling 131,000 members compared to Reform’s 200,000 plus and ask herself why Farage is getting through to disgruntled voters – and she isn’t.

Who is it that’s winning the hearts and minds of the British people – not Ms Badenoch and her motley Tory crew that’s for sure! Because this week she was forced to admit that the Tories will struggle in Mays local elections but still she couldn’t resist telling people not to vote for Reform.

And THAT’S how obsessed she is. She knows people won’t vote for her party but she has the brass neck to tell them not to vote for the one they believe is best for them.

She’s so fixated with Farage that just a few months ago she publicly accused him and Reform of publishing fake data about their party membership. At the time it had been around 130,000 and on Boxing Day Farage was celebrating overtaking the Tory membership.

Badenoch took to Twitter claiming the data was fake and had been manipulated and Farage immediately responded by demanding an apology and threatening to sue.

The Mail on Sunday newspaper also reported that Badenoch had asked GBNEWS, where Farage presents a TV show, to give him less air time because she was afraid the station was becoming a haven for her critics. How cowardly was that? And how terrified is she of Reform?

Her people denied the story but on every level Badenoch seems rattled by Farage which is why she never misses an opportunity to have a pop. Trouble is when she does it invariably comes back to bite her on the backside.

Because after her row with him about party membership Reform’s figures rocketed from 130,000 to 146,000 within days.

So, you’d have thought she might have learned to keep it zipped. But no, she was at it again last week almost salivating over the very public row between Farage and Reform MP Rupert Lowe who’s now been suspended over bullying allegations.

But there was Kemi crowing that the party, thanks to all the in-fighting, was doing what everyone always knew it would – imploding!

Only it isn’t. And it won’t And doesn’t she see the supreme irony of banging on about in-fighting and parties imploding? Because in-fighting is exactly what did for the Tories and lost them the last election.

People could no longer stomach the fact the party had split into warring factions that couldn’t agree on anything and so they kicked them out.

Badenoch needs to learn that every time she launches a new broadside at Reform it more members and it hammers home how scared she is of him. And she should be because he and Reform are winning over voters where the Tories are not.

Yet still she embarrasses herself by persistently slating Farage who, unlike her, is one of THE most influential and consequential politicians of the 21st century. And yes he appeared on a reality TV show but he’s also a man everyone knows not just for that but for his courage and his outspokenness.

They like what he’s promising and they love the fact he’s prepared to confront the issues other politicians run away from. In a nutshell they feel he’s on THEIR side.

Does anyone think that about Kemi Badenoch? Does anyone even know what she stands for or what she thinks about anything?

Maybe she needs to concentrate less on what Farage and Reform are doing and more on what the Tories aren’t doing.

And she shouldn’t keep batting off the prospect of a merger between the two parties because come the next election – she might be begging for one.