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Kemi Badenoch is more popular than her party. Harriet Symonds reports on her efforts to remake it in her image – and what her colleagues really think of that endeavour. Illustrations by Tracy Worrall
What is the point of the Conservative Party? After a rocky start, Kemi Badenoch is increasingly confident she can sell an answer – the point of the Conservative Party it is to do what Kemi Badenoch thinks is right.
Pushed into third place in the polls behind Reform UK until recently and leaking voters left and right, the Tories are a long way from power but it is Badenoch, not Nigel Farage, that appears more secure.
She heads into her second conference as leader after a sweeping reshuffle. Among the boldest moves was to replace Mel Stride with Andrew Griffith, a former ally of Liz Truss, as shadow chancellor.
The appointment shows the self-confidence of a leader determined not to be bullied by opponents and to reclaim some of Truss’ economic agenda of supply-side reform.
Then there is the increasingly interventionist approach to candidate selection. It’s been made clear Badenoch will not tolerate those standing for office under her party’s banner who cleave to the government’s net-zero targets or oppose leaving the European Court of Human Rights. These were picked deliberately to appeal to Reform-leaning voters. Other purity tests may follow.
So, how did Badenoch go about transforming the party into her own image?
“Kemi doesn’t look at things in terms of left or right, she asks, are they right or wrong?” says her spokesman, Dylan Sharpe.
That may be, but her brand of ‘common-sense conservatism’ is rooted in the small state rather than One Nation tradition.
If you’re someone like me who joined under David Cameron, then this is not the same party, and you kind of need to get over it
“She is properly on the right of the Tory party,” a former Tory MP who lost their seat at the last election tells The House.
“If you’re someone like me who joined under David Cameron, then this is not the same party, and you kind of need to get over it.”
Although the reshuffle did see some One Nation figures returned to the front bench – Tom Tugendhat and Damian Hinds – Katie Lam’s promotion to shadow Angela Rayner’s housing empire was more typical of the ideological bent. Similarly, Rebecca Paul’s promotion surprised some, but she is understood to have impressed Badenoch and is seen as a younger version of the Conservative leader.
One of Badenoch’s closest allies is Alex Burghart, a fellow MP from the 2017 intake, who was formally given the role of deputy leader of the opposition. He is the political brains behind the operation and will deputise at PMQs instead of the rotating system they had been using.
Burghart joins a small group of trusted MPs – including Griffith, Neil O’Brien and Kevin Hollinrake – who feed in thoughts on policy and direction to Badenoch weekly.
For the last year, O’Brien has been tasked with developing the party’s long-term policy and future manifesto.
In the reshuffle, Badenoch also promoted Jack Rankin to serve as her PPS alongside veteran MP and former minister John Glen. Rankin, who previously endorsed Robert Jenrick to be leader, speaks to the young and heavily online right of the party that Badenoch is increasingly trying to appeal to.
At this year’s party conference in Birmingham, Badenoch’s refreshed top team will continue to make the case for her brand of conservatism.
On the whole, the reshuffle has gone down well among Conservative MPs. Some regard it as a vital step as the party prepares for government. One Tory MP described it as putting the party on “war footing”.
There are three figures central to Badenoch’s grip on the party machine. Her chief of staff, Henry Newman, is regarded as an effective political attack dog. Mark McInnes, the Conservative Party’s chief executive, has been tasked with turning around its fortunes. And Stephen Gilbert, the director of strategy, is charged with working out how the party can win again – as he did for David Cameron in 2015 and Theresa May in 2017.
Part of the strategy involves a clean break with politicians synonymous with the party’s 14 years in government. Lord Barwell, Theresa May’s former chief of staff, was the first to publicly get the boot from the party after criticising Badenoch’s position on the ECHR and net-zero.
“Kemi has completely changed the candidate process. She’s made it much, much tougher. People now have to really prove that they are a Conservative, that they align with the values and principles of the new Conservative Party,” says her spokesman.
A well-informed source puts the number of former MPs who have been rejected, or know that if they apply they will get turned down, at “about a dozen”.
The approach has alarmed some on the party’s left wing.
“I think it’s a risky, possibly dangerous, place to go if you start rejecting potential candidates for their policy views. It’s never been about policy – in the past it’s been about values and principles. A policy position can change,” warns a Tory MP to the left of the party.
Badenoch defended her decision to not allow some former MPs to re-stand in an article for The Telegraph.
“Some people should never have been candidates before. Some do not have the judgement. Some do not have the discipline. Some do not want the Conservative Party to change,” she wrote.
Badenoch has made it clear that she wants new faces in the party and argues the way to do that is not by bringing back faces from their time in government.
Former defence secretary Grant Shapps is among those who have had their application rejected. The House understands no official reason was given but his allies have suggested that the real motive is because he is regarded as a potential leadership rival.
However, some Tory MPs have speculated that it was because he set up Conservatives Together, a group which helps train candidates to go through selection. One MP described it as “gaming the system”.
Former Tory defence secretary Penny Mordaunt is another high-profile figure going through the selection process. A final decision has not yet been made at the time of writing, but many in the party suspect she will also be rejected.
“These are just people that Kemi doesn’t like – that’s all it is,” says a rejected candidate. “It’s a very short-sighted approach.”
“What she has done is create discontent amongst a lot of people…There’s a group of people who are pretty pissed off and quite motivated about it,” they add.
While some MPs question why Badenoch would “pick a fight with her own side”, others argue it’s a necessary step to signal a clean break with figures associated with the party’s historic loss in 2024 and shore up party unity down the line.
Veteran Conservatives remember the endless internal rows that consumed the party during its final years in government, as it cycled through three prime ministers in five years. The factional warfare became so intense that the different groups were dubbed ‘The Five Families’.
There is a lot we got right, but there is also a hell of a lot that we got very wrong
Badenoch does not want her party to return to that state.
Opposition chief whip Rebecca Harris is at the forefront of imposing discipline among the Tory ranks. Most Tory MPs accept that any sniping about the leader or disunity over key policy issues is unhelpful during a period when the party is trying to rebuild.
The Conservative Party has previously welcomed competing traditions within its movement but some now fear there is less space for a broad church of views.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, former foreign secretary and Conservative grandee, went as far as to describe Badenoch’s approach as “anti-Conservative”.
“I think that’s where a lot of people’s heart is in the parliamentary party. But they’re not going to say it out loud,” says a former MP.
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has thrown open the doors to One Nation Conservatives who no longer feel welcome in the party.
“Come Conservative friends, help us save our country. Come and win with us,” Davey declared at his party conference last year.
A young Conservative, Cody Butler, publicly resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network after reading Badenoch’s op-ed in The Telegraph. Frustrated with the party’s new direction, he has made the decision to join the Liberal Democrats.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” he admits. “I wouldn’t say the broad church is dead, but I would say it has drastically been shrunk.”
“It’s an inquisition where if you’re not ‘our type’ of Conservative, you’re not a proper Conservative,” he explains.
“No one wants to have an honest conversation about what being a Conservative means. It’s just what the leadership wants, and they will align with whatever they’ve got to do to win back that Reform wing.”
At the start of the year, Andy Street and Ruth Davidson founded Prosper UK, intended as a home for moderate centre-right politicians who feel out of step with the new regime, but it has been resoundingly rejected by Conservative MPs.
Instead, many MPs say they are relaxed about seeing the ‘One Nationers’ go, viewing Badenoch’s changes as an essential step to make the party an election-winning force again.
“The red lines are there to demonstrate that she is someone with opinions and has purpose on big issues where the public has clearly moved,” says a former Tory MP, still weighing up whether to stand again. “The public wants tougher action on immigration and one diagnosis of that is you have to leave the ECHR. The public broadly thinks that ‘net-zero is a good thing – but let’s not go too mad’. That is essentially her policy.”
Her spokesman says: “There is a lot we got right, but there is also a hell of a lot that we got very wrong. Whether it is the enormous immigration, whether it is net-zero, the fact is Kemi is acknowledging those mistakes and saying we’re not going to make those mistakes again.
“If people don’t like that, then the Conservative Party probably isn’t the party for them.”
Last year, Badenoch’s team declared that the party was done apologising and must look to the future. Badenoch knows she will never be more powerful than she is right now and has chosen to use this goodwill to make tough choices that she hopes will pay off down the line.
