{"id":4574,"date":"2026-10-05T10:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/05\/the-house-alex-burghart-i-tell-kemi-when-i-disagree-with-her-but-shes-normally-right\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T10:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T10:21:11","slug":"the-house-alex-burghart-i-tell-kemi-when-i-disagree-with-her-but-shes-normally-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/05\/the-house-alex-burghart-i-tell-kemi-when-i-disagree-with-her-but-shes-normally-right\/","title":{"rendered":"The House | Alex Burghart: I Tell Kemi When I Disagree With Her (But She’s Normally Right)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \"Noah <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


\n 11 min read<\/span>1 hr<\/span>
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Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart speaks to Noah Vickers about his friendship with Kemi Badenoch, whether his party is still a broad church, and the need for change in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The Conservative Party has a new deputy leader and his name is Alex Burghart. The 49-year-old MP for Brentwood and Ongar may not enjoy the highest of public profiles, but he has long been a core member of party leader Kemi Badenoch\u2019s inner circle.<\/p>\n

The position of deputy leader has been technically vacant for more than two decades \u2013 having last been held by the late Michael Ancram in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it means more work and the same pay,\u201d quips Burghart, who has added the title to his existing roles as shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and shadow Northern Ireland secretary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a longtime ally and supporter of Kemi\u2019s and I was very pleasantly surprised when she said to me during the reshuffle, \u2018I could do with some help at the centre, and I\u2019d like you to come and help me kick the tyres on a few things,\u2019 so that\u2019s what I now do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burghart\u2019s first run for Parliament, in 2015, saw him go up \u201cagainst a little-known left-winger called Jeremy something\u201d in Islington North.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I won my spurs. I went round Islington North standing up for conservative principles and free-market economics and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that election, I made the strategic decision to lose by 20,000 votes, and then within a few weeks Jeremy became leader of the Labour party. His career took off rather faster than mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burghart had to wait until the snap election of 2017 to win his Essex seat \u2013 the same intake as Badenoch and representing constituencies which border one another. Since Badenoch\u2019s election as leader, commentators have called Burghart a \u201ckey confidant\u201d or even her \u201cpolicy brain\u201d, though he rejects that label: \u201cKemi\u2019s got her own policy brain. She\u2019s got plenty of brains herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He accepts, however, that he performs an important role as someone who can speak openly and honestly with her in private.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we\u2019re close and we trust each other, I can speak to her very frankly and she can speak to me very frankly.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, that\u2019s what all good operations need \u2013 and she is a very inspiring person to work for, because she always has a very strong sense of right and wrong and the direction the party should be going in. My job is sometimes to kick the tyres on that and sometimes to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

And telling her when she\u2019s made a mistake?<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell her when I disagree with her. She\u2019s normally right,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

Leading the opposition is said to be the worst job in British politics, but Burghart claims Badenoch is \u201cloving\u201d it and is \u201cthriving\u201d in the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard being leader of the opposition and being leader of the opposition after a historic defeat is uniquely challenging,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cWhen you look at what she\u2019s managed to do over the course of the past year, it\u2019s extremely impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burghart\u2019s pre-political background is in medieval history, having taught and lectured in it after completing his PhD on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. He is fascinated by how Mercia existed between the \u201ccatastrophic\u201d fall of the Roman Empire and the birth of England as we know it today.<\/p>\n

Post-Roman Britain, he points out, had seen \u201can extraordinary collapse in civilisation, which is probably more profound here than at any other point in Roman Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet from out of the Dark Ages, there came \u2013 eventually \u2013 a new and longer-lasting order.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a few hundred years emerges the most stable medieval polity, which is England, which is still around today \u2013 which is still using [the same] boundaries of local government, the same currency, the same monarchy, and ultimately the same basic system of law. Out of the great collapse emerged something even more durable than the Roman Empire.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a Conservative Party still recovering from its worst ever general election result, could there be an analogy here?<\/p>\n

Burghart allows the point with a laugh. \u201cSometimes you have to go through the bad times to get to the good.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are certainly more reasons for the Conservatives to be cheerful than there were 12 months ago, as Reform UK has seen its poll ratings slump. Burghart doubts, however, that traditional two-party politics will re-assert itself any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re certainly in multi-party politics for the time being and my suspicion is that that isn\u2019t going to settle down just yet,\u201d he says. \u201cI think one of the reasons why the system has become more populous is because of the rise of new types of media, which allow people to organise and sit within their own channels and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the same time, that doesn\u2019t mean that the same spread of voting needs to persist. If you look at how the Green vote has shifted up and down quite dramatically \u2013 and indeed Reform\u2019s vote has shifted up and down quite dramatically \u2013 what it speaks to is a period of high volatility. In that environment, there are opportunities for a party that is firm of purpose and principle.\u201d<\/p>\n

When The House speaks to Burghart, his party is facing attacks from Reform\u2019s Robert Jenrick over reports that the Conservatives are preparing to announce a plan to abolish inheritance tax.<\/p>\n

Jenrick claims the Tories are \u201cchoosing to help the wealthiest five per cent, while we want to raise the tax-free personal allowance to \u00a315,000 to benefit 97 per cent of workers instead\u201d. Is he right?<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we don\u2019t leave our speeches on photocopiers, Robert doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s in Kemi\u2019s speech at conference and he\u2019ll have to wait until the start of October to find out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Reform want to talk about the Conservatives being a tax-cutting party, they can do so, that\u2019s up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smiles and adds: \u201cBut I\u2019m not sure how much longer Reform will want to talk about money.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is clearly no love lost between the Tories and the MPs who have defected away from them. If any of those MPs were one day to regret their move, would they ever be welcome back in the Conservative fold?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if you start to entertain the idea that people can just come back, what you\u2019re signalling to colleagues 10 or 20 years down the line is that you can just experiment with changing parties and everything will be fine \u2013 and it\u2019s not fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed on whether that means the door is closed to them, he replies: \u201cI don\u2019t see any circumstances in which anyone\u2019s coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

As The House starts asking a new question, however, Burghart interrupts with a final caveat: \u201cBut I should say, it\u2019s up to Kemi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the Conservatives are already in the process of selecting candidates for the next election. Liz Truss, according to Badenoch, is among those not welcome to stand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure how much longer Reform will want to talk about money\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But she has also said that candidates who support policies like net-zero by 2050 or staying in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) will be blocked too. To what extent is Badenoch remaking the party in her own image?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very important that the Conservative Party looks fresh at the next election,\u201d replies Burghart.<\/p>\n

\u201cKemi was keen to build a shadow cabinet which was new, so she is obviously very mindful that, as a basic rule, people who become candidates for the Conservative Party should be on side with the changes that we\u2019re planning, because otherwise it\u2019s harder for us to promise the electorate that we will deliver on them. If you\u2019re looking for ways to prove that you\u2019re serious, this is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the party is still a broad church where \u2018One Nation\u2019 conservatives are welcome, he suggests that may depend on what is meant by \u2018One Nation\u2019, as the term can be \u201cill-defined\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re talking about Disraeli and One Nation conservatism, regardless of what badge colleagues may or may not choose to apply to themselves, Disraeli never uses the phrase.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe says there are two nations \u2013 there\u2019s the rich and the poor \u2013 and implies that government should govern for everyone. That\u2019s what a future Conservative government will do.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut running through that are the values that support our work, which is that we\u2019re there for families and people who do the right thing, people who work hard. That\u2019s the sort of country and society we\u2019ll always stand for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The House turns to Burghart\u2019s Northern Ireland brief, asking what he made of Donald Trump\u2019s recent claim that a united Ireland would be \u201cfantastic\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell he\u2019s wrong, and it\u2019s not for him to say,\u201d the MP declares, adding: \u201cThe President likes to stir things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that what Burghart thinks Trump was doing with that comment?<\/p>\n

\u201cI do, but I also wouldn\u2019t read too much into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex
Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer<\/figcaption>
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If the Tories win the next election, Burghart will be tasked with ensuring the UK\u2019s exit from the ECHR does not imperil peace in Northern Ireland, as concerns have been raised about whether the move would be compatible with the Belfast\/Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n

The agreement\u2019s wording is explicit that \u201cthe British government will complete incorporation into Northern Ireland law of the ECHR, with direct access to the courts, and remedies for breach of the convention\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burghart says he is satisfied by Lord Wolfson\u2019s legal advice for the Conservatives on this question, which argues that the \u201csubstantive rights embodied in the text of ECHR\u201d could be applied to Northern Ireland through a separate legal framework.<\/p>\n

The Irish government may require some convincing of this, The House suggests, as the T\u00e1naiste, Simon Harris, has warned the ECHR is a \u201cfundamental safeguard\u201d and a \u201ccore part\u201d of the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a sovereign country, we are entitled to leave the ECHR if we wish to,\u201d Burghart insists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certain provisions that we would need to make in order to take account of the Belfast Agreement, but that does not prevent us from leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Northern Irish Assembly, which operates through an often-paralysed power-sharing arrangement, is meanwhile in one of its states of deadlock \u2013 having still not passed its budget more than five months into the current financial year.<\/p>\n

As his Labour counterpart Chris Bryant warns it is \u201ctime to stop accommodating madness and find a better way of working\u201d, Burghart is clear that he, too, would be open to making reforms to Stormont.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to pretend that the arrangement is as good as it should be,\u201d he says. \u201cThat said, it\u2019s very difficult to shift those things without cross-community consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think [we are in] a situation in which it is very clear that certain big decisions do not get made, repeatedly, and public services for people in Northern Ireland are worse as a result\u2026 At some point, everyone is going to have to acknowledge that this isn\u2019t good enough and we will need to find an alternative.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t be appropriate for a secretary of state or a shadow secretary of state of Northern Ireland to say, \u2018It\u2019s got to change and this is how it must be\u2019. But I think we should certainly be open to reforming the institutions. Equally, I\u2019m not going to pretend that is an easy process.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last government, Burghart served as a Cabinet Office minister, where he was responsible for setting up Whitehall\u2019s first dedicated AI unit.<\/p>\n

With recent reports of AI agents going rogue and experts warning of a potential threat to human life, he admits that \u201cthe sheer distance that the technology has travelled\u201d is \u201cbewildering\u201d. Does it worry him?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, but I\u2019m a middle-aged man, I worry about a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

More seriously, he adds: \u201cI think everyone who has looked at this \u2013 who is honest with themselves \u2013 is a bit worried about it, because we simply don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be that the technology hits a wall quite soon and we learn to live with it as it is, but there\u2019s no sign of that slowing down.\u201d
\nHe is sceptical about whether there is any meaningful action the UK government could unilaterally take to contain the risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area where it\u2019s extremely important to have ongoing dialogue between the people who are building the capability, and government and regulators. However, for a country like the UK to think that, alone, we can just regulate our AI and make it safe, I think is crazy. There is no one country that will be able to do it.<\/p>\n

The work that Rishi Sunak tried to do was to \u201cmake sure there were fora in which people from around the world could raise concerns\u201d, he says. \u201cBut it is very difficult to get a handle on something that is changing so fast\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer 11 min read1 hr Conservative deputy leader Alex Burghart speaks to Noah Vickers about his friendship with Kemi Badenoch, whether his party is still a broad church, and the need for change in Northern Ireland. The Conservative Party has a new deputy leader and his name is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}