Kemi Badenoch’s speech at Conservative Party Conference was a vital moment to reset her leadership and reclaim her party’s mantle as the party of business. She rose to it, says Alys Denby
One of the chief joys of Conservative Party Conference is being denounced as “Tory scum” by a protester standing outside in the rain. But this year they were nowhere to be seen – even Steve Bray, a man who has spent a decade wearing a massive yellow hat and shouting “Stop Brexit” didn’t bother to show up.
You expect a party in opposition to get less attention, but you don’t expect it to become irrelevant. Some of the harm has been self-inflicted. Kemi Badenoch made a deliberate choice to say almost nothing for her first year as leader, believing she had time to go away and think. This has proved a mistake and, recognising this, Badenoch packed her keynote speech with policy announcements. Some of these will be warmly welcomed by City AM readers. VAT on school fees is a spiteful tax – the politics of envy directed at children – and a Conservative government would be right to scrap it. And abolishing stamp duty is the single best thing she could do to restore growth, aspiration and ownership (though she should extend it to shares as well as property). These are bold, serious announcements that stake the Tory flag right in the territory it should be: the economy. Announcing tens of billions of pounds in public spending cuts also showed the party is up for a fight to restore the public finances.
Conference attendees are unusual people, willing to give up time for proximity to MPs and displays of Margaret Thatcher’s clothes
If there had been a somewhat funereal atmosphere pervading the conference, her speech turned it around. And she almost certainly pleased the crowds enough to deter the threat of a leadership challenge from Robert Jenrick. For now.
But conference attendees are unusual people, willing to give up time for proximity to MPs and displays of Margaret Thatcher’s clothes. They are not a representative sample of the British public. And a lot of British people want Nigel Farage to be Prime Minister. The longer Reform’s poll-lead continues, the more Tories will defect and the more demoralised those who stay will become. Powerful disaffections are propelling populists into office around the world, and some kind of a Reform victory at the next election still feels likely.
Nothing in politics is inevitable, though. The past few days have been a vital moment for Badenoch to reset her leadership and reclaim the Conservatives’ mantle as the party of business and opportunity. She rose to the moment, but the risk is that it proves fleeting.
Alys Denby is opinion and features editor of City AM