Latest news with #Badenoch
New Statesman
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Kemi Badenoch is in a hole – and she keeps digging
Photo byLabour MPs have a lot to be depressed about. The euphoria as more than 400 of them swept into parliament in July dissipated at a speed as historic as their election win. Not only has the party dropped into the polls to levels of public support not seen since before the 2019 election, but MPs who entered parliament full of ideals and optimism have had to stomach an endless string of policy announcements – from scrapping the winter fuel allowance to disability benefit cuts to the tightening of migration rules – that feel fundamentally at odds with what they went into politics to achieve. (These two things, one Labour MP wryly suggested, might in fact be connected.) But there is one thing that keeping Labour spirits from collapsing entirely. And that is the Leader of the Opposition. 'She cheers us up every week,' one Labour MP said of Kemi Badenoch's sparring matches against Keir Starmer at PMQs. Another pointed out how visibly more relaxed the Prime Minister seems in his weekly Commons performances, loosening up enough to tell jokes that actually land and at times looking like he even enjoys the experience. The list of frustrations Conservative MPs have with their leader is growing – but right at the top are her efforts at PMQs. Badenoch frequently chooses to ignore the headline issue of the day to focus either on pet projects inspired by the right-wing Twittersphere (the details of which sometimes come back to haunt her), or on areas where justifiable criticism of Labour opens her up to counter-attacks about the Tories' own record. She seems incapable of taking advantage of moments where Starmer is obviously under pressure from his own MPs, and – as last week's reaction (or lack thereof) to the announcement of a U-turn on winter fuel cuts showed – has an uncanny ability to miss open goals. Tories – even those critical to Badenoch – are quick to point out the impossibility of her situation, attempting to rebuild a party from the ashes when there is an insurgent challenger on the right consuming all the airtime. There is general consensus that no one in that position would be doing well at this stage in a parliament, and that the party needs time to recover. But at the same time, Badenoch is making a bad situation worse – from interviews where the main takeaway is that she hates sandwiches to the recent row over use of a private car and driver as when she was trade secretary. (The fact Badenoch is reported to once again be unhappy about the car arrangements provided to her as opposition leader is, one Tory source despaired, an unforced error of 'galactic proportions'.) Overall, the mood is one of dismay that, the 'box office' firebrand who was meant to terrify Starmer has proved such a disappointment. Labour figures, however, had a very different perception of Badenoch before she became leader. Contrary to what was breathlessly written in Telegraph columns, the candidate they really feared was James Cleverly, who was considered 'the most dangerous opponent' for a variety of reasons: his likeability within the party and ability to unite the Tories and boost morale after a defeat; his skill at media; and his pitch to bring the Conservatives towards the centre ground, rather than chasing Reform. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe One Labour MP recalls a 'palpable sense of elation' in the Commons tearoom when the shock announcement came that Cleverly had been knocked out of the contest (thanks to a vote-swapping debacle), leaving Badenoch to face Robert Jenrick in a head-to-head of Conservative members. The relief was felt among both Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs that the biggest threat to them had been eliminated. Jenrick is viewed as the de facto successor if Badenoch is ousted – a point Starmer made at PMQs recently by congratulating those who had run the London marathon and joking that the shadow justice secretary was 'still running'. Labour MPs have mixed views of Jenrick's chances of reviving the official opposition. One suggested he might be a bit 'slicker' on TV, and Jenrick's work ethic was mentioned (he's been all over the country since the election, doing hundreds of events with Conservative groups while Badenoch's reputation for being 'lazy' is only growing). But no one thought this would be enough to solve the Tories' problems. That's in part because the biggest problem for the Conservatives is Reform – and another leader attempting to be 'Farage-lite' will do nothing to neutralise that threat. And it's a threat, of course, that applies to Labour too. Labour MPs began noticing the shift in Starmer's attitude even before the Prime Minister said he considered Reform to be the government's main opposition. Planted questions at PMQs have enabled Starmer to take aim at Farage, on issues ranging from workers' rights to green jobs, and he rarely misses an opportunity to connect Reform to the economic calamity of Liz Truss. The Prime Minister gave an entire speech on that subject on Thursday, accusing Farage of 'the same fantasy' as Truss after the Reform leader announced a slate of policies earlier in the week that would add tens of billions to government spending. Farage, Starmer argued, was 'Truss 2.0'. The Lib Dems have gone for the even catchier line 'Trussonomics on steroids'. Where does all this leave Badenoch? As effectively irrelevant, I was told by a Labour source – which could be both a blessing and a curse. 'We're torn between wanting her to stay because of how bad she is, and hoping the Conservatives improve because that might put some pressure on Reform.' It's unclear what form such improvement could take. It's hard to see who on the opposition benches could be a leader who takes the Tories back into government (the names being floated – by both Labour and Tory figures – have only been in parliament a matter of months). There was doubt among Labour MPs that Cleverly would ever make it in a vote among the Tory membership (speculation that might not be accurate, I was told by a Reform source, who wondered whether the exodus of Conservative members to Nigel Farage's party might have changed the membership so radically Cleverly would have a much better chance now than in October). The suggestion of a Boris Johnson comeback was greeted with laughter ('Good luck to him'). But even with the lack of options, Labour figures said they expected the Tories to get frustrated and find a way to oust Badenoch, if not by the end of the year then around the time of next May's local elections. However bad the polls are for Labour, they are worse for the Conservatives, one MP pointed out, flagging the 'extinction-level' poll that put the Tories in fourth place. 'Kemi is getting nowhere.' [See also: Inside the Conservative Party's existential spiral] Related
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Badenoch attacks Starmer and Farage over welfare
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of indulging in "fantasy economics" over their approaches to welfare policies. Writing in the Daily Mail, Badenoch says both leaders believe in getting struggling taxpayers to "fund unlimited child support for others". Her commentary comes after the Labour government indicated that it was looking at the possibility of scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Farage said earlier this week that his party would also get rid of the policy and back more generous tax breaks for married people. Badenoch added the country could not "afford their fantasy economics" and that Britain deserved leaders who did not "treat economics like a branch of showbiz". "This week we have seen Labour and Reform in a race to the bottom to scrap the two-child benefit cap," she wrote. "Starmer and Farage now believe in getting taxpayers - many of whom are struggling to raise their own children or choosing not to have them in the first place - to fund unlimited child support for others." The Conservatives have said the policy - which they introduced - of limiting means-tested benefits to just two children in most families should not be scrapped. Reform UK have pledged to remove the cap if they win power, but have not detailed how they would fund the billions it, and all their other pledges, would cost. In a speech this week, Farage said he wanted to lift the cap "not because we support a benefits culture" but because it would ease the burden on lower-paid workers. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said the government is looking at scrapping the two-child benefit cap but warned it would "cost a lot of money". Speaking on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show last week, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner refused to confirm whether the government would remove the policy. Pressure has also grown from Labour backbenchers over the issue since the party's poor performance at the local elections earlier this year. Badenoch's attack comes after Farage said this week the Conservatives had become an "irrelevance". For his part, Sir Keir said the Conservatives had "run out of road", were in "decline" and "sliding into the abyss". Badenoch argued her party was now "the only major political party to take a serious look at the welfare state". First minister calls for end to two-child benefit cap Rayner refuses to confirm if two-child benefit cap will be abolished
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kemi Badenoch's missteps are a 'total disaster' for Conservatives, say insiders
Listen to Henry read this article "Could this be like the 1920s where the Liberals got overtaken by Labour – but this time it's the Conservative Party being overtaken by Reform?" It's an interesting question – perhaps a little niche. But it's certainly not a question you'd expect to find a senior member of Kemi Badenoch's team openly pondering. The shadow cabinet minister went on to stress that they were more optimistic: that the resilience of what is often called the world's most successful political party should never be underestimated. Yet it's not so rare to find Conservative MPs entertaining the demise of the party under whose banner they were elected only last year. Why? Because since July – when the Conservatives were not just turfed out of office but reduced to their fewest MPs ever – things have only gotten worse. The initial excitement of a leadership contest and the opportunity to renew their party in opposition has given way, for many Conservative MPs, to a deep and deepening despondency. And while almost nobody believes that Kemi Badenoch, leader of the party for just under seven months, is the problem, more and more Conservatives admit to seeing her as a problem. "It's pretty bad," says one Conservative adviser. "I don't think you would find many of her supporters at all who would either tell you it's going well or that they expect her to be there at the general election." Another senior Conservative puts it more starkly. "This is a hugely important crossroads for the party. Trying to win an election again or just becoming a sort of heritage party that shrivels." The immediate cause of these statements – one about Badenoch, the other about the party more generally, both utterly fatalistic – was the local election results at the start of the month, a grim reminder for the Conservatives that the only way isn't up. What began as expectation management, that the Conservatives might lose control of every council they held at the start of the night, became a prophecy. Crucially, the local elections proved that the rapid surge of Reform UK in the polls was real at the ballot box too. The results also made clear that the challenge facing Badenoch is a dramatically distinctive one. The Conservatives last left government in 1997, and in the following set of local elections in 1998, their new leader William Hague made modest gains. When Labour lost office in 2010, their new leader, Ed Miliband, made gains at the local elections the following year. There is a template for how defeated parties fare in their early period out of office – and Badenoch's Conservative Party is diverging from it significantly. In fact, new analysis by the BBC's Political Research Unit shows that things have got worse for the Conservatives even in the few weeks since the local elections. The Conservatives have lost 44 more councillors since polling day, a rate of about two a day. There are diverse reasons for this – six (including two this week) have defected to Reform UK, whereas others who have quit have generally left to become independents. Three have died. And it's worth noting that on the other side of the ledger, one independent councillor has defected to the Conservatives since the start of May. While not completely unheard of, it is unusual for a party to lose so many councillors in such a short period of time and will be interpreted by some as another sign that the pillars of Conservative strength are continuing to crumble. In the same time period, Reform have gained 19 new councillors, both through defections and by-elections, although they have also lost five. The Conservatives' polling position has deteriorated since the local elections too. A YouGov poll last week put the party in fourth place on 16%, their lowest share with the pollster ever. While probably an outlier – a new poll this week had the Conservatives back in third – falling even temporarily to fourth was a blow to Tory morale at the start of what became a difficult week for its leader. Badenoch's performances at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) had been seen by her colleagues to be steadily improving. That changed on 21 May when Sir Keir Starmer opened the session with an announcement that he was U-turning on the winter fuel allowance. Badenoch proceeded with her planned questions anyway, only coming to the winter fuel allowance midway through. Badenoch denied what many of her own MPs believed – that she had simply failed to notice the significance of what the PM had said. "Lots of people who have never done PMQs all have lots of suggestions," Badenoch said. Some members of the team preparing Badenoch for PMQs have been urging her to change her approach, advising her to deploy more jokes in an effort to break through in what is typically her highest-profile event of the week. Badenoch disagrees. "She wants it to be more serious," says a party source. "She feels PMQs should be a proper exchange of arguments and views." An oddity of PMQs at present is that, given Reform's surge, Starmer often uses Badenoch's questions to jab at Reform, who have a tiny Commons presence. Some argue that in a funny way the Conservatives are a victim of Starmer's unpopularity: Labour's polling decline has been so fast that voters who are unwilling to forgive the Conservatives are flowing to Reform instead. Unexpected though it may have been, Reform's success arguably feeds on a crucial early strategic call Badenoch made. During her leadership campaign, a point of difference between Badenoch and her rivals was policy. Not necessarily what party policies themselves should be, but more fundamentally, when and whether to have policies. She argued that the Conservatives needed to take the time to go back to first principles and work out what the government should and should not do. This, Badenoch was explicit, would take time. In practice that has meant Badenoch repeatedly refusing to be drawn on policy questions, instead launching a string of policy reviews which will weigh up what direction to take the party in. To many of her colleagues we've spoken to, that is being increasingly revealed as naive at best. "The way in which she's just vacated the playing field has been a total disaster," one senior Conservative says. "Reform has become the de facto opposition. And that's because of a conscious choice she and her team made." Even some shadow cabinet ministers – each of them responsible for the policy reviews in their areas – agree. "We need more policy sooner," says one. Another urged Badenoch to do more to "articulate our values" even while sticking to her policy development timetable. Others argue that criticism of Badenoch on policy development is wide of the mark. A shadow cabinet minister pointed out that Badenoch had said she would reverse Labour's policies on inheritance tax on farms and VAT on private school fees, as well as changing the Conservative position on net zero targets and the European Convention on Human Rights. "It's not that we're not saying things," says the shadow minister. "It's that people don't want to listen to us." Accompanying that strategic debate are more mundane frustrations, many of them stemming from money – or the lack of it. True, political parties often shrink their staffing operations a little at this point in the cycle, having tooled up for the general election. But at Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), a string of voluntary, then compulsory, redundancies were especially severe, prompting so much briefing that Badenoch was moved to write to party members assuring them the rebuild was strategic rather than due to a shortage of funds. "Ignore ill-informed media reports from the disgruntled," she says. Shadow cabinet ministers have repeatedly complained of going without advisers, several of them being told the party does not have enough money for them to hire yet. "You go from having a whole department of thousands of civil servants filling your red box with briefings to working out how to respond to the government in the House of Commons all by yourself," says one shadow minister, sitting alone at a table in parliament. 'It's going to be ugly': Westminster braces for Spending Review Numbers are down - but Starmer will still struggle to win on immigration Is Britain really inching back towards the EU? Badenoch's defenders – and indeed some of her critics – say that both the money and personnel issues are yet more facets of her miserable inheritance. "People don't realise how bad a state CCHQ was in," one MP says. "A lot of work has had to go into getting the party back on its feet, and I don't think it fully is yet." Opposition parties are funded by a scheme known as Short Money. While there is a fixed sum for the staffing costs of Badenoch's office as leader of the opposition, the rest of the money given to the Conservatives is calculated from a formula on the basis of the number of seats and votes they won at the general election. Both were low – so, as a result, is the Conservatives' income. Badenoch did not exactly have the luxury of choice for her shadow cabinet, given its members constitute almost 20 per cent of Conservative MPs. Still, there are frequent complaints that some have taken to opposition with significantly more energy and commitment than others, and that Badenoch ought to promote newly-elected Conservatives to senior roles sooner rather than later. Reshuffle rumours are the preserve of any political party. But those complaints, as with all the others, take on a greater urgency while Reform is lurking. A few months ago, the word that probably figured most often in conversations with Conservatives about Reform was "pact" – should there be one between the two parties come the next general election. Now it is probably "existential" – the crisis the Conservatives have been plunged into by Reform's success. "Right now it would not be a pact," says one Conservative MP, "it would just be us folding into Reform." Even those who believe the Conservatives will overpower Reform in time wonder at what point more pessimistic Conservative MPs might follow the logic of their own predictions and defect. Top of many of her colleagues' lists is Suella Braverman, the former home secretary. Asked earlier this month whether she would join Reform, Braverman spoke of her "many decades" of commitment to the Conservative Party but warned her colleagues that "Reform is here to stay". What worries some Conservatives more is not defections of current MPs but a brain drain of future MPs and advisers – the kinds of people who keep the ecosystem of a political party healthy. They warn of a "crossover point" where ambitious young people on the right entering politics might decide it makes more sense to sign up to Reform than to join the Conservatives. For all their frustration, many Conservative MPs are still sticking to the view that Badenoch ought to be given longer to prove her worth. For them, the next set of local elections just under a year from now will be the pivotal moment – not least because they coincide with elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments too. A shadow cabinet minister says: "Realistically you need to give any leader, including this one, at least two years to show their worth." Others disagree. "People say 'you can't change leader again, you'll look mad'," says one senior Conservative. "Well I remember all that with Liz [Truss]. People said the country wouldn't allow it. Actually the country was just relieved." One crucial factor in Badenoch's favour is that, beneath the loud despair, there are still plenty of Conservatives who believe Reform's surge will fizzle out. One shadow cabinet minister says that just as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was the beneficiary of a "speeding up" of politics, he will soon become a victim and be seen by the public as "old news". Others believe that Farage's prominence masks how thin Reform's bench is. "You can't win a general election or be the largest party as a one-man band. Farage will have to find a way of sharing the limelight." Those the words of a senior figure from the last Conservative government. Last as in most recent? Or last as in final? Overwrought it may sound, but there really are plenty of Conservatives now entertaining those questions. Additional reporting by Peter Barnes and Oscar Bentley. Top picture credit: Getty Images BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Replacing Kemi would be as useful as rearranging chairs on the Titanic
In characteristically no-nonsense fashion, former Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings has declared that Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is a 'goner' and that she is likely to be deposed within a year. In a wide-ranging interview with Sky News, Cummings also referred to the Conservative Party's existential crisis, suggesting the party has 'crossed the event horizon and actually aren't salvageable'. Cummings, in all likelihood, is right on both fronts. In the last parliamentary term, Badenoch's political stock rose a great deal – and deservedly so. During the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK following the police killing of George Floyd, Badenoch courageously defended the UK's record on racial equality and challenged divisive notions of 'white privilege'. Indeed, she went as far as saying that Britain is the best place in the world to be black. Few could argue that black people would find a better package of political freedoms, economic opportunities, social stability, and legal protections anywhere else in the world. Badenoch reinforced her credentials as an anti-woke trailblazer by resisting the forces of radical transgenderism and protecting the integrity of female-only spaces. The symbolism of a confident black woman taking to task these toxic forms of racial and gender identity politics was powerful. But regrettably, Badenoch's period as party leader has been underwhelming – and the warning signs were there during her leadership campaign. This included claiming to have become 'working class' when she started working at McDonald's at the age of 16 – despite hailing from a middle-class family where her father was a general practitioner who later established a publishing company, with her mother being an academic lecturer. Badenoch herself attended the private International School Lagos (ISL). Her remarks exposed a complete lack of understanding of the stubbornly rigid nature of Britain's class system, perhaps due to the fact that she spent much of her childhood outside of the UK. Furthermore, in a more recent interview on Sky News with Trevor Phillips, Badenoch provided a verbal rags-to-riches autobiography which simply didn't come across as relatable at all. Badenoch's leadership has been drab and her instinctively free-market beliefs are a world away from the experience of many British voters who live in left-behind communities which have been battered by the harsh economic and cultural winds of globalisation. But truthfully, she is the leader of a party which is dying. The last parliamentary term of Conservative government was defined by numerous policy failures over issues such as immigration and asylum, bitter in-fighting, and all-round chaotic governance. Liz Truss's treatment of Britain as some kind of laboratory for her reckless ASI-IEA experiment was beyond destructive for the Conservative Party's historic reputation for economic competence. The traditional Tory vote is being cannibalised by Reform UK – with Farage so confident that he is already the leading figure of the British political Right, he is now focused on parking his turquoise tanks on Labour's red lawns. One can have their views on Badenoch. But replacing her as Tory leader may well be useful as rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
North Wales Chronicle
4 days ago
- Politics
- North Wales Chronicle
Badenoch to go ‘probably this year', says former No 10 adviser Dominic Cummings
Dominic Cummings described the Conservative Party leader as a 'goner', and said Reform UK could win up to 150 seats at the next election with 'Nigel and an iPhone'. He described Nigel Farage's Reform UK as a 'vehicle' for voters to say they 'despise' Westminster. Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately defended Mrs Badenoch, who she described as a 'good leader' during a 'hard time' for her party, and suggested Mr Cummings was trying to 'rock the boat'. In a Sky News interview, Mr Cummings said: 'Kemi is going to go, probably this year.' He added: 'There's already people who are organising to get rid of her, and I think that that will work. If it doesn't work this year, it will definitely happen after next May. 'She's a goner, so there's going to be a big transition there.' The former No 10 adviser also said that the Conservative Party had possibly 'crossed the event horizon and actually aren't salvageable', and added that 'it might be dead'. On Reform UK, which has five seats in the Commons, he said: 'They can win 50, 100, 150 seats with Reform as Nigel and an iPhone. 'But they can't win an overall general election and have a plan for government and have a serious team able to take over in Downing Street and govern and control Whitehall with one man and an iPhone.' Mr Cummings told the broadcaster that 'Reform is a vehicle for people to say 'we despise you, Westminster, we hate both the old parties, we hate Whitehall, we hate the old media, we hate the whole f***ing lot of you''. He added: 'Farage going up in the polls is the expression of that core feeling.' Mr Cummings also reflected on Mr Johnson's departure from Downing Street in September 2022, accusing the former prime minister of 'rewriting history, and a lot of the media just kind-of went along with it'. Reflecting on how some insiders felt at the time, Mr Cummings said: ''We told people we were going to do a whole bunch of things, he's now doing the opposite – OK, we should get rid of him.'' Asked about Mrs Badenoch's leadership, Ms Whately told Times Radio on Wednesday: 'It was always going to take some time for people to want to hear from us.' Mrs Badenoch beat rival Robert Jenrick in the head-to-head final stage of her party's leadership election last year. Ms Whately said she had heard from senior Conservatives who had told her to ''give it at least two years before people are going to want to hear from you again''. Responding to Mr Cummings, she later told Sky News: 'We do know that Dominic Cummings likes to rock the boat, that's something he has a track record of doing. 'My experience working alongside Kemi Badenoch is that she is a good leader and she's leading our party through a hard time. 'Now, we had a really tough election result clearly at the last general election. People told us very clearly at the ballot box that they were frustrated with us, I think particularly frustrated at some of the things that happened at the tail end of our time in government, including the time that Dominic Cummings was in fact involved, clearly when Boris Johnson was prime minister. 'And people were for instance very unhappy about the rising cost of living driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but we need to take the time to listen to what people are telling us, to reflect on that, and to come back with the right offer to the public at the next general election.' Ms Whately said Mr Farage had a 'big state answer' to political problems alongside 'an irresponsible set of unfunded fantasy economics'.
