Were Kemi Badenoch not to be unveiled as the next Conservative party leader in a couple of weeks it would now go down as a very notable upset.
Exposed to a demanding hour of cross-examination on the GB News leadership special, Badenoch landed her pitch almost perfectly. As the strong favourite with the bookies, Badenoch probably only needed a draw against her sole remaining opponent, Robert Jenrick. But for all his fluency, she did rather better than that. A show of hands at the end among the audience of several hundred Tory members broke overwhelmingly in her favour.
Trust me, I’m an engineer, she told her party
Perhaps Jenrick blundered by winning the toss and yet deciding to go first, meaning the audience was fully warmed up by the time Badenoch took to the stage. He has come so far in such a short space of time since he resigned from the Sunak administration last December that it is easy to imagine him as a future party leader too.
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