Badenoch has a fatal flaw...

If she becomes Tory leader, she'll be well advised to abandon her unwinnable war with the media, says Andrew Grice

- Andrew Grice

If Kemi Badenoch becomes Conservative leader, as many in her party expect, she will need to learn from a big mistake she has made during the leadership contest. She has had a prickly relationship with the media, which she seems to think is out to get her. Wrongly, in my view: journalists are doing their job in putting her under scrutiny as she runs for an important job.

After Badenoch grabbed unwanted headlines with her controversial comments about maternity leave, the national minimum wage and autism, one ally told me: “She is trying to discuss issues, but journalists use her remarks selectively and twist them. It’s ‘gotcha’ journalism. It’s the media who must change. We are not going to play their game.”

Badenoch told Sophy Ridge on Sky News this week: “What I find very frustrating is I’m asked a speculative question where I give a speculative thought, and that is then presented as a firm point of view. And I don’t want to have that kind of conversation. I want us to have a serious conversation about what it is that we’re trying to deliver, what makes sense for the society that we have today.”