Give Kemi time – her plan is starting to work
As she strives to rebuild the
Worse still, some Tories are already gunning for the Leader of the Opposition
None of this would have surprised
Yet Mrs T took no notice of the 'naysayers' or the 'moaning minnies', as she called them. Nor will Mrs B, who is made of the same stuff as the Iron Lady.
For the truth is that, largely unremarked by a mainly hostile media, Kemi is making rapid progress in the monumental task that she has set herself. For the first time in two generations, this leader is not chasing ephemeral soundbites, but is rethinking the foundations of Conservatism. To this end she has assembled the broadest-based Shadow Cabinet possible and enlisted some of the brightest minds in the kingdom.
She has elevated to the Lords the
Mrs Thatcher was an Oxford-trained chemist who learnt early on that one must trust evidence, not authority. Her family had taken in a Jewish refugee from the Nazis. Like her, Kemi Badenoch knows exactly what it is like to be intimidated by a monolithic state. Under a military dictatorship in Nigeria, where this British-born computer scientist grew up, life was ruled by fear.
As leader, Kemi has refused to let herself be rushed on policy. But she has struck the right, tough-minded note on the biggest issue of the day: immigration. She knows that Nigel Farage
By contrast, Kemi will step up the pressure on the Government this week by calling for a radical reform of the period required for Indefinite Leave to Remain. It should be ten years, not five, she says, and the conditions should be much stricter. Migrants should have to prove that their household is a net contributor and that they have no criminal record.
'Our country is not a dormitory,' she declares. 'It's our home.' As someone who first met Kemi soon after she became an MP eight years ago, I can say with confidence that she is one of the most patriotic people I know.
She loves this country with a passion that is as infectious as it has been absent from our politics for years. It is impossible to imagine Mrs Badenoch paying an enormous bribe to a Chinese satellite to take over a British territory
Mrs B, like Mrs T before her, is the kind of leader who emerges once in a generation. Ignore the polls: no general election is in prospect. Kemi's mood music may not yet be to everybody's taste, but in three or four years' time it will have built up to an almighty crescendo. A land of hope and glory? Under Kemi – and only her – it's credible.
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