An ally of Kemi Badenoch has dismissed reports she is in a WhatsApp group of Conservative MPs named “Evil Plotters” as “just silly gossip”.

Housing minister Lee Rowley, who was campaign manager for Ms Badenoch during her Tory leadership bid, also denied he was a member of the group and that he was unofficially working for the business secretary.

A spokesperson for Ms Badenoch did not deny she was a member of the group.

The reports about Ms Badenoch’s membership of the group, which was first reported by the Guardian, come despite an interview she gave on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips in which she warned Tory rebels looking to remove Rishi Sunak to “stop messing around”.

Asked by Times Radio whether he was a member of the WhatsApp group, Mr Rowley replied: “I’m not and it’s all just silly gossip.”

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According to the Guardian, Ms Badenoch, who ran against Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest triggered by Boris Johnson’s resignation, has been messaging Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove on the “Evil Plotters” group.

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She is also said to have been holding regular lunches with key backers, including Mr Rowley and other ministers.

Mr Rowley denied he was unofficially acting as Ms Badenoch’s campaign manager, telling LBC: “Kemi is a very close friend, she’s been a very close friend for many, many years.

“I think in that report you’re referring to I’m being told I’m going to lunch with people – of course I’m going for lunch with people, I meet people very regularly, I work with Kemi very regularly on policy as I do with every other minister.

“This is all the sort of self-indulgent conspiracy thing that goes on in politics from time to time.”

In the interview with Sir Trevor, Ms Badenoch accused MPs looking to install her as leader of “stirring” and said they were not her “friends”.

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“A lot of people who are going around doing this are creating problems and difficulties that the party, and more importantly the country, does not need,” she said.

Pressed on rumours that she was seen as the ideal replacement for those who want to remove Mr Sunak, Ms Badenoch replied: “They need to stop messing around and get behind the leader.

“The fact of the matter is most people in the country are not interested in all of this Westminster tittle-tattle.

“Quite frankly, the people who keep putting my name in there are not my friends. They don’t care about me. They don’t care about my family or what this would entail. They are just stirring.”

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A spokesman for Ms Badenoch said: “This is exactly the sort of stirring Kemi was referring to when she told people to stop messing around on Sunday.

“Having lunch, speaking to MPs, and having a parliamentary special adviser is not a plot, it is the day-to-day job of being a secretary of state.

“This utter nonsense is clearly part of a targeted campaign against Kemi and anyone reading it should treat it as such.”

Speculation about Mr Sunak’s future mounted after Sir Simon Clare, the former levelling up secretary under Ms Truss, called on Mr Sunak to resign as prime minister, arguing it was the only way for the Conservatives to avoid a “massacre” at the next election.

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