Badenoch’s interview with the Financial Times comes after she reshuffled her shadow cabinet this week, just eight months into her leadership of the party.
In that time, the Conservatives have regularly polled third or fourth – behind Reform and Labour, and sometimes the Liberal Democrats – and suffered heavy defeats in local elections in May.
Reform, meanwhile, gained control of 10 councils in May’s local elections in England. Several former Conservative MPs have also announced they are defecting to Reform in recent weeks, including ex-Welsh Secretary Sir David Jones.
Despite concerns over her command of the party, Badenoch pushed aside concerns that her leadership was under threat in the interview with the FT.
“I can’t spend all my time worrying about regicide. I would lose my mind,” she said.
“I’m so thick-skinned to the point where I don’t even notice if people are trying to create harm. That’s extremely useful in this job.”
In her reshuffle, former Home Secretary James Cleverly was brought back to the front bench, with Badenoch saying that she wanted to “make sure all our heavy hitters” are there.
Cleverly has been a backbench MP since being knocked out of the Conservative Party leadership contest that Badenoch won. He has warned against the party copying Reform UK policies, urging the Tories to be “more normal”.
Last month, Badenoch told the BBC that she was “going to get better” as party leader, adding: “You don’t want people to be the very best they’re going to be on day one.”
Badenoch cited Milei as her inspiration because she was concerned by the sight of the state “spreading its tentacles everwhere”.