At her first shadow cabinet as Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch walked into the room and declared that there were ‘still too many people’. Various advisers hastily left. It was an indication of how she plans to do things differently. Even the invitation list for politicians has been slimmed down – the shadow attorney will not attend, and some roles have been axed, such as deputy leader. No ‘readout’ of discussion topics was emailed to hacks afterwards to update the lobby on what happened.
Kemi Badenoch can start off her leadership by pitching herself ason the same side as rural voters
The reason? Badenoch wants shadow cabinet meetings to be a safe space for political debate. She herself has been stung by leaks from these meetings in the past. Her decision to ‘rip into’ Rishi Sunak over mistakes in the Tory campaign in the first shadow cabinet after the election quickly leaked to the press.
According to those present, this week’s gathering was, thankfully, a tamer affair. ‘We’re in the honeymoon stage,’ says one attendee. Though that didn’t stop light sniping. ‘Half the room didn’t know what to do or how it worked,’ says one figure. Others focused their attention on the leadership runner-up Robert Jenrick, now shadow justice secretary. Jenrick and Badenoch entered the room together. ‘He looked like he was walking into the last supper,’ says a colleague.
Iain Duncan Smith gave a presentation on how to do opposition well. While a respected figure, it raised some eyebrows around the table given his own struggles as leader. He urged the new front bench to wage the war of the flea. He explained that the Labour government represented a big elephant and it was the job of the remaining Tories to do the job of the flea: they can’t match their opponent in size but they can annoy and confuse.
As for the general strategy, the new Tory co-chairman Nigel Huddleston was asked what the plan was to win back Reform party voters. He said he was looking into it. The most interesting intervention came at the end of the meeting from Jenrick. After a rather bitter leadership contest, he made a big point of calling for unity. ‘Your success is our success,’ he told Badenoch. The comments landed well with the new leader – but not everyone was convinced. ‘It was the most insincere thing I’ve ever seen,’ said one colleague afterwards.
The question of party unity still hangs over Badenoch. Like Duncan Smith, she won only the support of a third of MPs in the parliamentary rounds. It means some in the party are already speculating as to whether she will lead them into the general election. Two of her leadership rivals – James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat – have opted to return to the backbenches. Both could position themselves as an untainted candidate to step in should Badenoch’s leadership go awry.
In a bid to reach out, she gave two key roles to former leadership contenders: shadow chancellor to Mel Stride and shadow foreign secretary to Priti Patel. As well as the appointment of Jenrick (who, to the dismay of Badenoch allies, declared his job before the official announcement), two of his backers have made it round the table: Victoria Atkins as shadow environment secretary and Ed Argar as shadow health secretary. However, neither are hardcore Jenrick types. Instead, they were the MPs his campaign pointed to to say he had support from the party’s one-nation wing. ‘The Tory right is not really there,’ says one shadow cabinet member. ‘It’s a very “one-nation” team.’
None of the architects of Jenrick’s campaign has been given a plum job. Danny Kruger, who led it, missed out on a senior shadow cabinet role. Neil O’Brien managed only shadow minister of state in education. ‘[O’Brien] committed the cardinal sin of being a member of the 2017 intake who didn’t back Kemi,’ says a party aide, pointing to how a large part of Badenoch’s support comes from the MPs elected with her in 2017.
If this is Badenoch’s honeymoon, she could do with some quick wins. For David Cameron and William Hague, a key goal was to show that the party was changing. Hague shared a room with his fiancée at party conference, which at the time was seen as a rather modern thing to do. Cameron hugged huskies and went green. ‘It’s important to do something no one would expect the Tories to,’ says a former aide. Badenoch is adamant that she won’t rush into policy decisions – a move praised by one Cameron-era adviser on the grounds ‘it comes back to haunt you’ – and instead is planning policy commissions.
Yet there is still some low hanging fruit. One is farmers. In Labour’s first Budget, Rachel Reeves has handed Badenoch an easy win by capping agriculture property relief. It is an issue on which the whole Tory party agrees – Badenoch can start off her leadership by pitching herself as on the same side as rural voters, many of whom abandoned the Conservatives at the last election. With Labour MPs now representing 100 countryside seats, winning these voters back is an important part of any recovery.
Second, something that hurt the Tories at the last election was Labour’s efforts to woo the business community. It meant there was no open letter from business leaders warning against a Labour government – as happened in 2015. Instead, they were praising Reeves. Now that firms face a triple whammy of new workers’ rights, employer national insurance and the rise in the national living wage, the Tories have a chance to repair relations. The new shadow business secretary, Andrew Griffith, wants to make reconnecting with small businesses his number one objective.
Finally, gender. Few questions make Keir Starmer wince more than ‘What is a woman?’ (although he also struggles with ‘What is a working person?’). This month, the Supreme Court could rule on the legal definition of a woman in a landmark case involving the Scottish government, as part of the long-running battle over whether someone who is biologically male can legally be referred to as female under the Equality Act. Badenoch could lead the charge here on strengthening the Act – something Starmer is likely to shy away from. It’s no coincidence that Nigel Farage often starts Reform rallies by explaining what a woman is as he rails about wokeness.
If Starmer’s Labour starts to look flea-bitten, Badenoch will know the first part of her leadership is going to plan.
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