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Reform UK has accused Kemi Badenoch of being "obsessed" with Nigel Farage's party after she used a major speech in London to launch a fierce attack on Tory defectors. The Conservative leader denounced former Tories who have joined Reform as "drama queens" who are not "serious people".

The ranks of Reform MPs have swelled with the arrival of Secretary Robert Jenrick, ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Romford MP Andrew Rosindell - and a Reform source claimed the Tories are heading for electoral catastrophe and predicted that after the looming May elections the Conservatives will "cease to be a national party".

Mrs Badenoch suggested MPs who abandoned the Conservatives for Reform suffered from sour grapes.

She said: "I'm sorry you didn't win the leadership contest; I'm sorry you didn't get a job in the shadow cabinet; I'm sorry you didn't get into the Lords, but you are not offering a plan to fix this country. This is a tantrum dressed up as politics."

The Tory leader compared the defectors to her own children, saying: "When my kids have a tantrum, I don't give up or change my mind, I send them to their room."

She declared she led a "party of serious people, not drama queens".

Mrs Badenoch did not hide her frustration with Mr Farage's party, claiming that "every time we have the government on the ropes", Reform pulls "silly stunts". She accused Reform of "punching us from behind and letting Labour off the hook" and claimed the party does not "care whether your son or daughter can get a job".

A Reform source struck back at the Tories, saying: "The Conservative party will say anything for attention as they fade into obscurity. After the local elections in May they will cease to be a national party. Instead of howling into the wind, Kemi would be better advised to admit that Britain is broken, issue an apology for the mistakes the Tory's made in Government and remove those in her party that were responsible."

A Reform spokesperson added: "Kemi is obsessed with us. As Britain reels from the damage caused by the Conservatives, she used one of her rare public appearances to attack us - yet again. She was a senior minister in governments that delivered record immigration and the highest tax burden in modern British history. Her party is haemorrhaging support and she's panicking."

Mrs Badenoch also used her speech to fire warning shots at "former politicians" who want her to soften her policies.

Moderate Tories including former Scottish Conservative leader Baroness Davidson and ex-Mayor of the West Midlands Sir Andy Street and former Home Secretary have launched Prosper UK - a campaign group which aims to anchor the party in the centre Right and reach out to the "politically homeless".

Mrs Badenoch said: "If people want a political home that will fix the economy, that will sort out our borders, that will give hope to the next generation, there is a home. It's the Conservative Party."

She made it clear she will not back down on controversial policies such as pulling Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

"Some people have been questioning what type of Conservative Party I'm running," she said. "Well, let me tell you. A party that wants stronger borders and has done the work to leave the ECHR.

"A party that wants to stop bankrupting our country by deindustrialising and destroying manufacturing, under the guise of net zero. We've done the work and will repeal the Climate Change Act."

She hit out at ex-politicians who "are in denial that the world has changed" and "don't want to admit that immigration is too high".

"Global mass migration is a real problem," she warned. "It is going to take some very, very tough decisions to fix it."

Urging a new generation of Conservative candidates to apply to stand for election, she said: "We are building an army that is going to deliver meritocracy, dismantle the bureaucratic class, and get Britain working again."

A Labour spokesperson said: "The Conservatives are not serious, they're not sorry, and are too consumed with holding together their terminally broken party."

However, a Conservative party adviser was delighted at the reaction to the speech, saying: "The room was full, standing room only, and the energy was brilliant. The party needed to hear Kemi's vision for our country and why Labour and Reform are two sides of the wrong coin. Kemi delivered that and more and MPs, party members and members of the public are responding brilliantly."