Badenoch has ‘clear direction’ for Tories but policy takes time says Shadow Chancellor
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch “has very clear direction” but it takes time to come up with “the right policy platform”, a member of her shadow cabinet has said.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride defended his party leader who has previously said she will not “rush out” policy positions, arguing there is no “quick fix” following the Tories’ 2024 election defeat.
Rebuilding
Mrs Badenoch has claimed the process of rebuilding the party is a “marathon, not a sprint” and warned there were a number of challenges to face, including the local elections which she said would be “very difficult”.
Mr Stride said the Tories have a “huge mountain to climb” after the last general election but they “have the time to do it”.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “There will not be a general election for probably another four, four-and-a-half years. We have absolutely got to regain the trust on a number of areas including, and most significantly, the economy.
“I am absolutely confident that under Kemi’s leadership – she has very clear direction, she knows what her conservative principles are – that we will do the hard yards and that deep and thoughtful work to come up with the right policy platform that means that we can get back into political contention.
“These things take time. We need to re-earn that respect from the electorate and that’s what we’ll be doing over the coming months and years.”
Mrs Badenoch became Tory leader in November, defeating Robert Jenrick to replace Rishi Sunak.
The MP for North West Essex said in her victory speech that the party needs to be “honest” about the mistakes they made in government, and spent the leadership contest focusing on “principles” instead of policy.
But critics have said swift action is needed to see off the threat of Reform UK, which has been buoyed by a series of Conservative defections and a boost in the polls putting it within a few points of Labour and the Tories.
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The clear direction for the Tory party now is that they are happy to roll over for foreign billionaires when they make awful attacks on MP’s and paint targets on them. Not one single conservative has spoken up I think?
Party is bought and paid for is the only conclusion I can draw. No longer a UK party, but a party for hire by anyone. Ian Dunt is absolutely correct in his summation of Baddenoch. Highest bidder wins.
I get the sense she doesn’t have any sensible political instinct, a bit of wind sock. I saw her questioning in PMQs and it was truly awful. Quiet possibly the worst I’ve seen. I think she’ll struggle to hold onto her seat at the next election if Reform target it
At PMQ she said she had met survivors of grooming gangs then her press office had to deny it after pmq (hansard has the comments and its confusing what she meant “The victims of the Tavistock scandal came to me”). She said she doesn’t make mistakes because she thinks carefully of what she is going to say. Not seeing any evidence. Yet Jess Phillips who has done a hell of a lot more than Badenoch gets attacked and real threats made and Kemi looks the other way. Cleary abuse is the bandwagon for kemi. And not one single Tory member… Read more »
So Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says she has a “clear direction” for the Tories but states that policy takes time. I tend to agree. They do say good things come to those who wait. Let’s hope that wait is an eternity.
Bumbling Mel was the unfortunate victim sent out in the election campaign to tell us all how great the Tories were despite 14 years of non governance and now talks about how they have to ‘re earn’ the trust which proves he knows he was talking tripe at the time. Badenochs’ ‘direction’ is looking left along the benches at the turquoise rosettes threatening her and her party but if it still holds true that you cannot win an election from an extreme political position, she must recognise that fundamental change must be enacted now. Six months have gone by and… Read more »