Rivalry, ambition and the threat from the Right

Can Kemi Badenoch resuscitate the Tories and extinguish the rise of Nigel Farage?

- FREDDY GRAY

Where's Kemi? That's not a question most Tories thought they would be asking this time last month, as they elected their sixth leader in eight years.

On the contrary, the top brass believed their party had finally found in Kemi Badenoch a “generational talent” — a charismatic champion who could turn their fortunes around.

Francis Maude — Baron Maude of Horsham — argued that, whereas normally opposition parties go through several failed leaders before winning again, “Kemi Badenoch is the one chance we have to get it right first time.”

“She has the capacity to cut through,” added Graham Brady, the former chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, as he praised Badenoch’s “authenticity, freshness and intellect”.

The Tories hailed themselves, too, for elevating another MP with a minority background, and another woman, while Labour has only ever been led by white men. “Male, pale and stale,” snarked James Cleverly, the former home secretary and one of the men Badenoch had beaten to the leadership, who is himself mixed-race. “Labour really do need to sort themselves out.” One month in, however, what has defined Badenoch’s leadership is not its multi-racial marvellousness. It’s its anonymity. She isn’t cutting through, and it’s not just supporters of Robert Jenrick, the white man she beat in the final round of the leadership contest, who are starting to complain.

Badenoch has given just one major speech, on the topic of immigration, which went largely unnoticed. And her performances at Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament have underwhelmed, to put it mildly.

Is she perhaps not the “black Thatcher” after all? “It’s not exactly been great so far,” says one insider. “She hasn’t really done anything.”

“It’s been a subdued start,” adds another senior Tory. “And the clock is ticking.”