Kemi Badenoch’s opening video before her speech had a series of politicians and normal people talking at odd angles into their phones about the need for a new politician. She was pictured smiling, charming people in person, and vowing ‘let’s renew’, before she walked onto the stage for another no-notes speech.
It was, as you would expect, a speech that embraced the idea of tearing everything up and starting again, with Badenoch as the disruptor. She promised to ‘Rewire, reboot and reprogramme’, adding that: ‘Nothing is more exciting to me. I am an engineer, and engineers don’t hide from the truth.’ Her overhaul would involve the Conservatives rewriting ‘the rules of the game’, and producing a ‘plan that considers every aspect of what the state does and why it does it.’ That would include looking at international agreements, the Human Rights Act, judicial reviews, activism, the Treasury, the Bank of England, the civil service and the health service.
She promised to ‘Rewire, reboot and reprogramme’, adding that: ‘Nothing is more exciting to me. I am an engineer, and engineers don’t hide from the truth’
She was as critical of the direction of the country as Jenrick, but unlike Jenrick, she offered more of a solution than simply promising to stand up to the people who were taking Britain in the wrong direction. Jenrick’s speech was designed to make the members feel sad and angry about what was happening in Britain. Badenoch wanted to make them feel like they were part of changing everything, just as Thatcher changed everything in the 1980s. ‘We have it in our power to make the 2030s a golden decade,’ she said.
She pitched herself as up to this huge overhaul by telling the hall that she wasn’t afraid of a fight, and giving examples of where she had stood up to identity politics, particularly in the form of gender ideology. She argued that it was wrong to say that she liked a fight, but that she isn’t afraid of one either. Badenoch drew on her upbringing in Nigeria, telling the hall of the fear she felt when she could hear her neighbours’ homes being burgled in the middle of the night, adding: ‘when you’ve experienced that kind of fear you’re not worried about being attacked on Twitter.’ Just as well, really.
This was probably the best speech of the four, but also the most challenging. Badenoch wants the party to be ready to look back over the ideas and settlements of the past few decades and think again about everything, including policies the Conservatives have ended up accepting wholeheartedly such as the minimum wage. Jenrick largely wants to resist what is happening now. Cleverly wants to manage an upbeat party that largely accepts the status quo, as does Tugendhat, but with less clarity. They all came on the stage at the end to wave together, and then left, ready for the final votes from MPs in Westminster.
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