{"id":395030,"date":"2026-01-28T13:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395030\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:21:07","slug":"centrist-ideas-no-longer-wanted-in-conservative-party-says-kemi-badenoch-kemi-badenoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/395030\/","title":{"rendered":"Centrist ideas no longer wanted in Conservative party, says Kemi Badenoch | Kemi Badenoch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Centrist ideas are no longer wanted in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch<\/a> has said, arguing that one nation-type Tories or others who have qualms about her rightward direction for the party \u201cneed to get out of the way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Making a speech in Westminster intended to set out her vision for the party after a spate of recent defections to Reform UK, the Conservative leader hit out at what she called the \u201ctantrum\u201d of Robert Jenrick<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

But she explicitly rejected the approach of Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor, and Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, who have launched a new group within the party for what they call \u201cpolitically homeless\u201d centrist and centre-right voters.<\/p>\n

While Badenoch said she welcomed any help that could win her party an election, she said this did not involve any policies that were not based around her right-leaning ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey need to recognise the agenda which I\u2019m setting,\u201d she said, when asked about the efforts by Street and Davidson. \u201cI\u2019m the leader of the Conservative party, not anyone else. And it is what I think needs to happen that they need to support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody who is trying to push an agenda that is not what I got [elected on], not the platform I stood on, is not being helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Badenoch was clear on her direction, setting out a Reform-adjacent policy platform based around cutting immigration, opposition to net zero policies, slashing social security and lower taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Conservative party has moved to the right every day since I became leader,\u201d she said in an early draft of the speech, a line Tory officials said was removed only for reasons of length.<\/p>\n

The Tories \u201chave to be a truly Conservative party\u201d, Badenoch said in her speech, adding she was relaxed if that meant centrists deciding to leave: \u201cI won\u2019t apologise to those walking away because they don\u2019t like the new direction. We only want Conservatives<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe people who don\u2019t agree with this direction need to get out of the way \u2026 We\u2019re about the future, not the past. We\u2019re not trying to recreate 2006 and it\u2019s not 2016 any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Badenoch argued that her approach was about finding \u201ca common ground\u201d rather than left-right divides, such an explicit repudiation of the historically strong centrist tradition in conservatism is likely to dismay some in the party.<\/p>\n

It also could leave her electorally exposed given the Conservatives lost about 60 seats to the Liberal Democrats at the last election, many because more centrist Tory voters abandoned the party.<\/p>\n

The speech was, however, rapturously received by the audience of MPs and party members, particularly a scathing attack on defectors to Reform, notably Jenrick, her former shadow justice secretary.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cTo those who are defecting, who don\u2019t actually disagree with our policies, I will say: I\u2019m sorry you didn\u2019t win the leadership contest, sorry you didn\u2019t get into the Lords, but you are not offering a plan to fix this country. This is a tantrum dressed up as politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Centrist ideas are no longer wanted in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said, arguing that one nation-type…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-395030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}