Badenoch Blows Leadership Election Wide Open
Badenoch Blows Leadership Election Wide Open
Conservative rising star electrifies the Tory election.
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Kemi Badenoch Has Huge Momentum
It is fair to say that Kemi Badenoch has electrified the race to be next Prime Minister.
What’s remarkable is how quickly she has established herself as a serious force in an election contest that has already seen the likes of Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid quickly fall away.
In a sensational development the latest Conservative Home poll shows Badenoch now leading the Tory pack when it comes to support from Conservative members. She is now the clear favourite of the Tory grassroots with a double-digit lead over the next most popular candidate, Liz Truss. 31% are backing Badenoch compared to 20% support for Liz Truss.
By comparison Tom Tugendhat, who has sought to present himself as the ‘clean start’ candidate, has the support of only 10% of members in that same poll.
A Brexiteer, Badenoch’s rise is remarkable and the main line of attack against her has seemed to centre on her lack of experience at top level politics compared to other candidates.
I would urge you to spend a few minutes watching this video of Badenoch demolishing the Labour Party in Parliament however - she really is a terrifically capable politician.
Over the weekend and ahead of the next TV Debate this evening, Badenoch also further set our her leadership stall in the Sunday Telegraph. In it, she addressed mass migration and the pressure that has clearly placed on housing stock and services in this country.
The latest figures show that between 2011 and 2021, England’s population has increased by almost 3.5 million. The majority of this increase (57.5%) was due to net migration.
Both David Cameron and Theresa May pledged to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands per year. Neither could deliver inside the EU, with open borders.
Post-Brexit, the next Prime Minister can deliver this overwhelmingly popular pledge. YouGov’s research shows clearly that a majority of Brits think the level of immigration has been too high over the past decade. That includes a whopping 81% of Conservative voters.
And Kemi Badenoch signalled in the Telegraph that she would intend to cut levels of migration, writing:
"We need to consider the demand side of housing, not just the supply side. People – rightly – recognise that building more homes while doing nothing to bring immigration down is like running up the down escalator.
“We’ll never get to where we need to with that approach, and we won’t persuade people to accept more homes if it is being done due to immigration failures. If we can bring immigration down to a sustainable level, we can then protect green spaces for our children and precious agricultural land.
“And so controlling immigration is important to managing the pressures it puts on housing and public services. Building confidence in the Government’s ability to control immigration is an important foundation for ensuring a cohesive society.”
It is bonkers that this issue has been largely ignored by mainstream media recently. Indeed the only migration questions I have seen the PM contenders quizzed on so far during this contest have been regarding small boats illegal migration.
The issue of immigration is behind only the economy when it comes to the priorities of Conservative voters. It is remarkable that no other leadership contender has yet committed to cutting the huge levels of net migration we have seen in recent years.
Kemi Badenoch’s intervention on this issue, as with her impact on the Conservative leadership election overall, is a big development likely to further increase her support amongst the Conservative grassroots and wider public.
I believe she is now just two solid TV debate performances away from reaching the Conservative run-off to become next PM. That in itself would be a remarkable achievement. But there is a pathway now for Kemi Badenoch to win.
No she hasn’t and for all of her rhetoric on seemingly fighting, to use her own analogy, when addressing ascending an escalator, as it’s headed in the wrong direction. An indication perhaps of her eventual u-turn to come, because let’s be perfectly clear here, the fact’s speak for themselves as these island’s increasingly become more cosmopolitan, a trait normally associated with our largest cities.
It is not just the lack of preparedness any subsequent administration will face on any of those fronts (now barriers) brought into play internationally. When, with but a single monicker, befitting any monarch their (parliamentarians) then ratification of a withdrawal agreement, brokered only instability.
This latest campaign to square diversify but particularly given the meteoric rise of not one but several representative’s from within the BAME contingent, sitting at Westminster albeit conservative but to positions of ministerial authority, will irk many for even now, the lefts incessant and divisive reasoning for besmirching all of those who voted for Brexit, as racist’s, must now rely on it’s membership, convincing them wrong.
I liken this latest round to the deplorable position Mrs May of put us all in whilst PM, when revoking article 50. Two year’s to negotiate an amicable solution to disentangle 40+ year’s of becoming so intrinsically linked to it, that whomsoever find’s themselves leader of a party, will quickly find as Boris himself appreciated, all their efforts will be made harder still. Carpe diem indeed