Is Kemi Badenoch up for the fight?
What is Kemi Badenoch for? If you’re now asking yourself “who’s Kemi Badenoch?” then she really is in trouble. In the four months since being elected leader of the Conservative Party, she has attempted to make a virtue out of vagueness.
She explains, not unreasonably, that her party has to reflect on what went wrong when they were last in government and take their time in developing the policies they’d like to pursue should they get back into government again.
But between their last period in office and a potential future return to power lies an unforgiving and unpredictable wilderness, in which a Leader of the Opposition must work hard to survive each day and, God willing, win at least a few of the many battles that should occupy their every waking hour. Just as Labour has been criticised for its obvious lack of preparation for government, the Tories need to rediscover how to be in Opposition.
The Sun’s Harry Cole revealed in January that Badenoch sees 2025 as the year in which her party can set about “rebuilding trust” with voters, before devoting 2026 to “establishing credibility” with a firm policy agenda not emerging until the end of 2027. Some in the City may recognise the bare bones of a sensible turnaround strategy in this approach, but voters are even less patient than shareholders and to Badenoch’s critics this approach smacks of complacency.
Her time as Leader of the Opposition has coincided with a disastrous collapse in business confidence and mounting evidence of the damage caused by Labour’s policies to the country’s economic prospects. This has presented an opportunity for Badenoch to speak on behalf of every small-business owner in the country, a move that would surely have gone some way towards building the “trust and credibility” she seeks.
And yet she has missed this opportunity, focusing instead on speeches about Western civilisation. Her shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, has done an effective job in attacking Labour’s business and economic policies, but the difficulties facing employers should, at the very least, have been Badenoch’s focus at every single PMQs of the past four months.
Six months into office, the Budget remains the most vulnerable part of Labour’s agenda and Badenoch should be waking up every day with a plan to punch that bruise. Leading this fight could have defined her leadership for millions of people.
It’s not too late to join the fray, but doing so will require more energy than we’ve seen so far.