UK’s Conservative Party Turns Over a New Page

The election of Kemi Badenoch, as the new leader of Britain’s Conservative Party seems to have rattled not just the common public but even the diehard Tories. But this should also be seen as the last-ditch efforts by the Conservatives to revive the party’s fortunes. 

Last week, Britain’s chastened Conservative Party, which faced its biggest defeat and the lowest tally of seats in the House of Commons, in the general elections earlier this year, elected Kemi Badenoch as its new leader. 

This marks the Tories’ looking-up to a right-wing favourite who has raised concerns about identity politics, transgender rights, and state spending, to rebuild its reputation after a devastating election defeat.

Badenoch defeated Robert Jenrick in a vote of party members by 53,806 votes to 41,000, after a months-long contest to replace Rishi Sunak as the party’s leader. She’s the first Black woman to lead a major British political party, and the Tories are brandishing this as being a diverse and inclusive party as compared to Labour, which so far has been led by White men only.

But rather disconcerting is the fact that her selection all but ensures a rightward shift to Britain’s political discourse over the next several years, and creates a jarring stylistic clash between the new opposition leader and Keir Starmer, Labour’s serious and straightlaced prime minister.

After winning the party’s election, Badenoch outlined the tasks ahead to the Tory faithful: Hold the Labour government to account and prepare for government with “a clear plan.” 

Badenoch continued that the party needed to be honest “about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.” However, overall, this was primarily due to the Conservatives losing the grip over the real issues, public anger and facing public’s ire over their management of the economy, crime, immigration, and declining standards in public life by its leaders like BoJo and Liz Truss, who were faced by a daunting task of rebuilding Britain after the Brexit, and they completely lost the script.

Badenoch, who has often been described as one who relishes confrontation has received muted support from her own lawmakers in her various moves for the leadership, and has leant into US-style cultural clashes on a swathe of topics, inspiring grassroots members on the Conservatives’ right-wing in the process.

Curiously, Badenoch has often been compared to Margaret Thatcher and she herself has said she shares Thatcher’s “values of self-reliance, personal responsibility and free markets.”

Like the Iron Lady, Badenoch is reported to be fearless and combative. She believes conservatism is in crisis, and that her party must get “back on track” having lost sight of its principles and values. Yet, the comparison between the two seems rather skewed.  

Charles Walker, a former Conservative lawmaker, who has followed Badenoch’s political ascent with interest, says he isn’t convinced that she’s the new Thatcher. “It’s not just about having strong views. Margaret Thatcher had her views intellectually underpinned and was pragmatic,” he said. 

Niall Ferguson, a Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist opines that like Thatcher, she is middle-class, the daughter of professionals. Like Thatcher, she studied a hard subject at university (computer systems engineering) and came to political and economic theory later in life, after experiencing the real world of the private sector.

Ferguson says further, “Best of all, from my point of view, is her sense of history. One of the books that has influenced her thinking is Daron Acemoglu and Jim Robinson’s Why Nations Fail, which makes the point that Britain’s spectacular rise in the 18^th and 19^th centuries owed more to constitutional constraints and the rule of law than to (as she put it) ‘colonialism or white imperialism or privilege or whatever’. That is a fundamental argument not only about Britain’s past, but also about its future, which will be prosperous only if we return our government to the principles that Badenoch holds dear.

Michael Murphy – a London-based journalist, writing for the Daily Telegraph opines that comparisons to Thatcher can obscure more than they reveal. While Thatcher was known for “excessive punctuality” and meticulous attention to detail, Badenoch is reportedly often late to meetings and disinterested in reading ministerial briefings. These traits could, at crucial junctures, trip her up in the marathon she must now run over the next four years if she is to return the Tories to power.

The Conservatives’ longing for Mrs Thatcher’s ghost, decades later, points to a party adrift and out of fresh ideas. Yet Badenoch has developed her own brand of Conservatism well-suited to the times. And Labour’s waning popularity could present her with an opportunity to make inroads, Murphy said further.

Meanwhile, Badenoch has received support from people like JK Rowling for her “brains and bravery” in standing up for women’s rights. The Harry Potter author and Mrs Badenoch have both vocally opposed gender ideology, with the latter saying during her leadership campaign that a child cannot be trans.

Britain’s first Black woman leader of a major political party, Badenoch is certain to shake up the Conservatives who suffered their worst election defeat in July under former leader and prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

In her sights is not just the left-leaning Labour government but also the right-wing populist Reform UK party led by veteran Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, whose appeal drew traditional Conservative voters to his cause in July’s election. But the anticipated swing to the right under Badenoch, 44, could alienate the more moderate wing of the party.

She says the administrations of former prime ministers such as Sunak and Boris Johnson gave up those principles in favour of an approach that meant the party “spoke right and governed left”, handing votes to other parties.

Badenoch has faced a backlash for her remarks like when she said 5-10% of civil servants, or apolitical officials working in government, were “very bad” and “should be in prison” for undermining ministers. Or comments that maternity pay was “excessive” and people should exercise “more personal responsibility” also raised eyebrows.

While some might see such slip-ups as a problem, Badenoch sees her straight talking as an asset, one she says has helped her work well in teams in government. But all this also proves that apart from a hard worker who rose from the ranks, Badenoch is a maverick who may achieve what she has set her sights on.