It is a hundred years in October since Margaret Thatcher’s birth – so what Conservative leader would miss the chance to lay claim to the Iron Lady’s legacy? Kemi Badenoch was up this afternoon as the keynote speaker at the Centre for Policy Studies’ conference at the Guildhall in London. The theme of this year’s annual Tory shindig has been ‘remaking conservatism’ – and Badenoch clearly sees an opening to remake conservatism in her image.
Her remarks this afternoon were brief but kept to the pattern of her leadership bid last summer. Badenoch dubbed Mrs Thatcher ‘the leader who saved our country: she didn’t arrive in office to manage decline; she came to reverse it.’ The Essex MP depicted herself as the worthy heir to the Thatcherite legacy, telling the audience that ‘For me, Margaret Thatcher wasn’t just a historical figure. She shaped my entire view of politics, of leadership, and of Britain itself.’ There were personal touches peppered throughout: a reference to growing up Nigeria where the words ‘Margaret Thatcher’ were sufficient to silence male teasing.
The implication throughout Badenoch’s speech is that her ‘Renewal2030’ mission is more about reinvigorating, rather than replacing, Thatcherism. There were obvious attempts to tie the great battles of Britain’s first female premier with the woman who aspires to be the next. ‘British territory is British territory’, she said, drawing a parallel between the Falklands invasion and the Chagos deal. Badenoch, a keen student of the 1970s, regularly draws parallels between the UK then and now: ‘Just as she rebuilt Britain’, she said, ‘we must renew our party, rebuild our country, and save our future.’
The 1,200-word speech was very much about teeing up tomorrow’s announcement on policy commissions. Badenoch’s key lieutenant is Alex Burghart, a fellow MP whose own historical specialism is in the Mercian policy. He reportedly told the shadow cabinet earlier this year that the Thatcher precedent was instructive: she did not rush into policy announcements and neither would Kemi Badenoch’s team.
After five months of leadership, tomorrow Badenoch will show the fruits of her labour thus far. She and her supporters will hope that, like Thatcher, she returns her party to government at the first time of asking. Her effective dismissal of several climate hecklers at the beginning of her speech will at least prompt supporters to compare her efforts to Thatcher’s famous 1980 speech, at which the-then Prime Minister quipped ‘You can’t blame them – it’s always better where the Tories are.’
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