Kemi Badenoch said Jeffrey Archer complimented her on her opening speech at the Conservative Party conference in his final message to her before his death at age 86.
The former politician turned bestselling writer died suddenly on Monday (5 October), his publisher said.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, the Tory leader said: “At 8am yesterday, he sent me a message saying, ‘Great outfit, great speech, no need to reply. And I read it, and I smiled, and I was absolutely shocked in the evening when I heard that he'd passed away.”
