Why Badenoch has just over a year to save her leadership

By going on about migration, the Tory leader is showing her preoccupation with the threat from Reform when she should be focused on holding Labour to account, says Andrew Grice

- Andrew Grice

When MPs gossip after Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), they sometimes ask each other whether the session was their party leader's best performance at the weekly joust. Unfortunately for Kemi Badenoch, many Conservative backbenchers concluded that Wednesday's was her worst.

Yet the Tories are in denial; the party’s YouTube channel ran with the headlines “Keir Starmer RATTLED by Kemi Badenoch” and “Kemi BASHES Keir”.

There is growing frustration among Tory MPs that, despite the Starmer government’s woes, Badenoch is not landing enough blows on it. They are jittery because many thought they had elected a street fighter last November. One influential senior Tory MP, who backed Badenoch for the leadership, told me: “I’m disappointed. So far, Kemi is not what I hoped she would be. There’s no strategy or vision; it’s all over the place. She has been not good enough at PMQs.”

Margaret Thatcher, who became Tory leader 50 years ago this week, admitted it was a year before she “found her feet” as leader of the opposition. It’s regarded by many at Westminster as the toughest job in politics (though don’t tell Rachel Reeves that after another difficult week).