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Badenoch fallen trap locks parties out of power
Confirmed
In Short: New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized Labour's policies during Prime Minister's Questions, while Labour leader Keir Starmer paid tribute to fallen soldiers.
At Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), Labour leader Keir Starmer addressed the House, honouring the fallen of the First World War and subsequent conflicts.
In contrast, new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch seized the opportunity to critique Labour's policies, starting with climate change.
Badenoch accused Starmer of making life more expensive with his unilateral commitments, referencing the prime minister's recent announcement of a new target to cut emissions by 81 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2035.
Starmer, in response, emphasized that the budget does not increase taxes on working people, highlighting the government's efforts to support the economy.
The Conservative party's conference in Birmingham began with the release of a 100-page document outlining Badenoch's governing principles, titled 'The Right Way'.
Badenoch's speech at the Institute for Government was described as a straightforward policy announcement, focusing on the need to reform equality laws.
She argued that the expansive language of equality laws has left British institutions, including the police, vulnerable to constant legal challenges.
Badenoch's essay, 'The Right Way', is modelled on Margaret Thatcher's 'Right Approach' document from the late 1970s, emphasizing private ownership, competition, and light-touch regulation.
The document also criticizes the 'Blairite legal settlement', advocating for a return to the principles of living within means and reviving the wealth-creating part of the economy.
The Conservative conference featured an exhibition mocking the Bayeux Tapestry to depict British politics under Labour's first two years in power, with Jeremy Clarkson addressing the gathering.
Badenoch's essay offers a counterpoint to Labour's leftward shift, emphasizing individual and community responsibility over state control.
Badenoch positioned herself at the summit of the triangle, declaring that 'everyone matters', in a bid to appeal to a broad spectrum of voters.
What this adds
The Conservative conference's exhibition mocking Labour's policies may prove popular, but it also highlights the party's internal divisions and the challenges Badenoch faces in uniting the party.
Badenoch's essay 'The Right Way' is a significant document that outlines her vision for the Conservative party, but its impact remains to be seen.
Background
At Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), Labour leader Keir Starmer paid tribute to fallen soldiers, while new Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch took the opportunity to criticize Labour's policies.
What's confirmed
- At the despatch box, Badenoch can harness — as her backers argued throughout the leadership campaign — her potential to “cut through” to voters.
- Badenoch began on climate, claiming Starmer will make “life more expensive with his unilateral commitments”. (At Cop on Tuesday, the prime minister unveiled a new target to cut emissions by 81 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2035.
- “We produced a budget which does not increase tax on working people”, he began.
- YouGov polling finds that 39 per cent of the public “Don’t know” whether they have a favourable or unfavourable view of Badenoch.
- (For what it’s worth, Starmer — upon becoming opposition leader in April 2020 after a similarly lengthy leadership election — was viewed favourably by 34 per cent of the public, and unfavourably by 25 per cent.) Still, that so many voters don’t know what to make of Badenoch suggests she has an opportunity to make a strong first impression.
- To this end, Badenoch’s uniquely combative political style is a real strength.
- ‘Badenoch’s maneuvering is deft, but will it work?’ Credit: Getty On one level, Kemi Badenoch’s speech at the Institute for Government yesterday was a straightforward policy announcement.
- It sounds well-intentioned but, as Badenoch argues, the expansive language has left British institutions, including the police, vulnerable to constant legal challenge.
What's still developing
- “Talked right, governed left” is a common refrain, and one which has permeated most internal post-mortems.
- The former quipped on Monday that “a lot of people seem to have come dressed as seats” as he surveyed the hall from the main stage, but there’s no denying that luring the nation’s most famous farmer to address what’s left of the Conservative party was something of a coup.
- The document of 50 years ago stated that “the Conservative approach entails living within our means, paying our way in the world, mastering inflation, reviving the wealth-creating part of the economy and encouraging all those on whom it depends.” Our problems today are very different, but the solutions are remarkably similar.
- As a result, the “shield” of equality law — an essential safeguard against specific acts of discrimination — has become a “sword”: a tool used to impose a broader culture of box-ticking at the expense of common sense.
- So, against Labour, she’s out to dismantle what she calls the “Blairite legal settlement”, of which the Public Sector Equality Duty is a cornerstone.
- To reinforce her double-edged argument, she also laid into the Black Lives Matter rhetoric of the Left, along with the “white lives matter” reaction on the Right.