{"id":795438,"date":"2026-10-08T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795438\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T02:00:08","slug":"people-are-scared-of-her-to-be-honest-kemi-badenoch-remakes-tories-in-her-image-kemi-badenoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795438\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018People are scared of her, to be honest\u2019: Kemi Badenoch remakes Tories in her image | Kemi Badenoch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kemi Badenoch has long said that the Conservatives<\/a> were \u201cunder new management\u201d, but in a TV interview to mark the end of a party conference at which she has been front and centre of more or less everything, she took the analogy further.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour viewers will know that sometimes you have a football team that\u2019s disappointing,\u201d the Tory leader told GB News. \u201cThere\u2019s a new captain, there\u2019s a new coach, there\u2019s a new owner, effectively \u2013 which is all me.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are bold words even for a politician known to possess an iron-clad self-confidence. But they are no exaggeration. Badenoch is not only outperforming her party in polling terms, she is busy remaking it in her own image.<\/p>\n

The broad ideological direction was already set, with Badenoch saying explicitly<\/a> at the start of this year that centrist ideas were no longer wanted. Some more moderate figures remain in her shadow cabinet, but they are signed up to a right-leaning agenda, including opposition to net zero<\/a> and a bonfire of human rights protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those around Badenoch say, however, that her control goes further, with policy decisions such as the move to grant free childcare to people<\/a> with incomes above \u00a3100,000, announced on the eve of the conference, made simply because she believes they are the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith policies it\u2019s not about chasing certain groups of voters,\u201d one shadow cabinet minister said. \u201cShe focuses on what she thinks needs to be fixed, what she feels is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking her out of a policy decision, they said, was a tall order: \u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen \u2013 it\u2019s tablets of stone. She\u2019s not going to change her mind. She knows what the policies have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographers and delegates clamour to get a picture of Badenoch. Photograph: Christopher Furlong\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Many political parties are, to a greater or less extent, a cult based around the leader, but this is particularly the case for the 2026-period Conservatives, where MPs say Badenoch is talked about on the doorsteps with an admiration and respect not accorded to their party more widely.<\/p>\n

MPs recount how her name is raised unprompted. One said: \u201cShe\u2019s brought up in a positive way. Crucially, in a world where most people couldn\u2019t name more than a handful of politicians, they know who she is.\u201d<\/p>\n

This starring role was obvious throughout the Conservatives\u2019 conference in Birmingham, not least Badenoch\u2019s arrival, which saw her greeted by a flag-waving crowd of activists chanting: \u201cKemi, Kemi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inside the venue, Badenoch was the heroic centrepiece of the party\u2019s \u201cBirmingham tapestry\u201d<\/a>, shown in mocked-up 12th-century form doing everything from chastising Wes Streeting to sitting in the turret of a tank.<\/p>\n

Such veneration is not just wishful thinking by a party eager to move on from a revolving door of previous leaders. While last year\u2019s conference was viewed as<\/a> make-or-break for Badenoch, even with her party still bumping along at 20% or so in the polls her position is now seen as secure, with the Conservatives more unified than they have been for years.<\/p>\n

This is in part the result of some serial malcontents leaving for Reform UK, especially Robert Jenrick<\/a>, as well as the party\u2019s diminished size in the Commons, which as one shadow cabinet minister notes, is too small for factions: \u201cWe could just about fill a corner table in Pizza Express.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018Birmingham tapestry\u2019 showing Badenoch \u2018expelling\u2019 Robert Jenrick, who defected to Reform UK. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

There are still private doubts, including Badenoch\u2019s instinct to lean into culture wars rather than focus on the economy, which those around her believe is the party\u2019s strongest electoral card.<\/p>\n

Some party figures also wonder if Badenoch is thinking about election strategy at all with her very personal suite of policy choices, which in Birmingham mainly consisted of giving tax breaks to wealthier people.<\/p>\n

This was capped in her end-of-conference speech with the announcement that<\/a> a Badenoch-led government would exempt people\u2019s homes from inheritance tax, an idea which, given that the levy only begins on property worth more than \u00a3500,000, is a largely theoretical idea outside London and the south-east of England.<\/p>\n

While such policies could be appealing to prosperous home counties voters who defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2024, this does not seem to be the plan. During another TV interview, Badenoch chided her questioner for suggesting her tax cuts were aimed at bringing back such support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sad that you\u2019re looking at this in crude electoral terms,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s how we\u2019ve all got into this problem where we keep thinking about winning elections rather than thinking about what works.\u201d<\/p>\n

One former Tory strategist said there was a risk of incoherence: \u201cI can\u2019t understand what is being achieved with these announcements. Forget lots of the small ones, just use the money and do a big tax cut for middle earners.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was, they added, little chance things would change: \u201cPeople are scared of her, to be honest. I think a lot of her team don\u2019t know how to say no to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, much like football, politics is not a one-person game, and a star player or manager will only get you so far. And while Badenoch was at pains to praise colleagues in her speech, it is fair to say that the rest of the shadow cabinet is lagging.<\/p>\n

Andrew Griffith, Badenoch\u2019s new shadow chancellor, was feted by his boss for his private sector business expertise. But on Monday he gave a speech widely seen as one of the worst<\/a> delivered to any conference in years.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch takes her shadow chancellor\u2019s measurements. Photograph: Jack Taylor\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is a matter of profile as well as ability. While Badenoch is recognised by 90% of voters, according to YouGov polling, only 22% say they know who Griffith is. A number of his colleagues are on similar ratings, with pollsters saying even these are likely to be inflated by people who don\u2019t want to admit ignorance.<\/p>\n

The experienced Tom Tugendhat, now in the foreign affairs brief, does slightly better, on 46%. Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, hits 50%, but this is because some people mistake her for the Olympic cyclist, now Laura Kenny, formerly of the same name.<\/p>\n

There was some unease in Birmingham about Badenoch blotting out everyone else. \u201cIsn\u2019t there a danger we are becoming a one-woman party?\u201d one activist asked a fringe of shadow cabinet members.<\/p>\n

Others disagree. \u201cIt\u2019s a normal dynamic for an opposition party that is unpopular,\u201d said Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary. \u201cIt needs a strong popular leader that can pull it up and we should thank our lucky stars that we have her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either way, most Conservatives now accept that, for now, it is up to Badenoch to chart the Conservatives\u2019 course, whatever it involves. One ally said: \u201cWe win elections on the economy but there\u2019s no point telling Kemi not to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch has long said that the Conservatives were \u201cunder new management\u201d, but in a TV interview to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795438","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\/795438","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=795438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}