After more than 100 days at the helm of a faltering Tory party and a string of high-profile gaffes, Kemi Badenoch’s leadership is facing growing doubts. Do you think she has what it takes?
It has now been more than 100 days since Kemi Badenoch took control of a demoralised Tory party – so how do you think she is handling her leadership so far?
With her apparent media aversion and hands-off approach to constituents, critics warn she’s struggling to turn the tide against Labour and Reform UK – and the clock is ticking.
She also appears to be extraordinarily gaffe-prone, with the Mirror ranking her top nine worst offenders including her deeming Partygate as ‘overblown’, a misleading attack on the government over defence spending, slagging off sandwiches and deeming flat-rate tax as an ‘attractive idea’.
All served to further push her party further into the mud, but Badenoch isn’t really showing any signs of clawing her way out of it – so it’s little wonder there are growing concerns among her beleaguered party.
Some fear she lacks the political nous to head off Nigel Farage, while others criticise her lack of media savvy – often sending shadow cabinet colleagues out to face the music where predecessors would doubtless have seized the opportunity.
A former advisor told The Guardian: “Kemi absolutely hates doing media. She does not see it as an integral part of her job. We could get away with that in government but in opposition you have to turn up to the opening of an envelope. She should be trying to get clips on the news every night. But she is not prepared to do it.”
Other senior Tories moan that Badenoch doesn’t make much of an effort with her constituents.
“She thinks she can do the job differently, but the fact is, 90% of it is graft,” stated one Tory MP. “She wants to be an architect, but being leader of the opposition is more like being a bricklayer.”
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They added: “The problem is, the job she was applying for was not the one she thought she was applying for. She was running to be leader of the opposition, but she thought she was running to head up a right-of-centre thinktank.”
The criticism comes after Badenoch was roundly mocked for her dramatic claims that failure to renew the Tory Party will lead to the loss of “our country and all of Western civilisation”.
The under-fire Conservative leader was branded “sad” and accused of “fawning” over Donald Trump after the speech in central London. In a lengthy rant Ms Badenoch said: “If we get this right, we stand at the dawn of the new Conservative century with so much opportunity and possibility.
“If we throw this opportunity away because of anger or self-doubt or weakness, our country and all of Western civilisation will be lost, and that is why we, the next generation of Conservatives, must lead the world back from the precipice. It is time to speak the truth.”
In between lashing out at the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), she told an audience at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) that the Tories are “starting the largest renewal of policy and ideas in a generation”.
The comments were seized upon by political opponents. A Labour spokesperson said: “The Tories have no ideas and no remorse for the damage they inflicted on public services and the pockets of working people. They haven’t listened and they haven’t learned.”
What do you think? Are Kemi Badenoch’s days as Tory leader numbered? Take our poll above and expand on your feelings in the comments.
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