Badenoch lays claim to Thatcher’s legacy

It is a hundred years next month since Margaret Thatcher’s birth – so what Conservative leader would miss the chance to lay claim to the Iron Lady’s legacy? Kemi Badenoch was up this afternoon as the keynote speaker at the Centre for Policy Studies’ conference at the Guildhall in London. The theme of this year’s annual Tory shindig has been ‘remaking conservatism’ – and Badenoch clearly sees an opening to remake conservatism in her image.

Her remarks this afternoon were brief but kept to the pattern of her leadership bid last summer. Badenoch dubbed Mrs Thatcher ‘the leader who saved our country: she didn’t arrive in office to manage decline; she came to reverse it.’ The Essex MP depicted herself as the worthy heir to the Thatcherite legacy, telling the audience that ‘For me, Margaret Thatcher wasn’t just a historical figure. She shaped my entire view of politics, of leadership, and of Britain itself.’