Column: The challenges facing Kemi Badenoch… November 6, 2024 Politicians, the public often decry, lack real-world experience. Whether it be running a business, working in healthcare, serving in the armed forces, anything that demonstrates their ‘feet on the ground’ credentials is a plus. It covers parents too. Just look at Keir Starmer’s oft-touted “toolmaker father”; Rishi Sunak, the “son of a pharmacist; and even [...]
Kemi Badenoch appoints top team with Andrew Griffith to shadow business November 5, 2024 Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed her full top team, with former City minister Andrew Griffith taking on the role of shadow business and trade secretary. The Conservative leader appointed her former rival candidates Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel as her shadow Chancellor and shadow foreign secretary last night, as well as making Laura [...]
Mel Stride and Priti Patel given top shadow cabinet jobs November 4, 2024 Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel have been appointed as shadow Chancellor and shadow foreign secretary as new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch assembles her front-bench team. Both Stride and Patel ran against now-Conservative leader Badenoch in the race to replace Rishi Sunak following the July 4 election. Their appointments are the first to shadow the [...]
Badenoch wants a battle of ideas – we should wish her well November 4, 2024 One week before emerging victorious in the Conservative leadership race, Kemi Badenoch was asked by Sophy Ridge on Sky News whether she wanted to be Prime Minister. “I don’t think it’s about wanting to be prime minister,” she said, adding, “I think it’s not an award. It’s not like winning a competition. It’s actually a [...]
What will be the top issues facing Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservatives? November 2, 2024 Badenoch will be at the helm as the party tries to recover in the wake of the July general election result, but what are going to be the immediate issues facing the Tories?
Kemi Badenoch wins Tory leadership election November 2, 2024 Kemi Badenoch has been elected leader of the Conservative Party. The former business secretary was declared the winner at an event in central London on Saturday, defeating rival Robert Jenrick by 53,806 votes to 41,388. She becomes the first black woman elected to lead a major British political party, and the fourth woman to lead [...]
Budget 2024: Why the post-match politics are risky for Labour October 31, 2024 After months of speculation, Rachel Reeves has finally unveiled Labour’s first Budget in power. Coming in the wake of 14 years in opposition, this big tax and spend – and borrow – document is very much an ideological project, with the NHS, schools and low-paid workers among the big winners. The Chancellor may have ditched [...]
Make the Tories Conservative again? October 23, 2024 A particularly laughable defence of socialism is that it’s never really been tried. It’s tempting to dismiss the central analysis of both candidates for the Tory leadership – that their Party lost the general election because they were not conservative enough in government – on similar grounds. But it would be a mistake to imagine [...]
Tory leadership: I’ll return us to ‘party of sound money’, Robert Jenrick pledges October 16, 2024 Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick has pledged to return the Conservatives to “being the party of sound money”, if elected. The former migration minister outlined his economic plans in a speech this morning in which he admitted the Conservatives “abandoned fiscal responsibility in the mini-Budget.” Jenrick told an audience of journalists and MPs at a [...]
Tory leadership: End race early so victor can respond to Budget, says Jenrick October 10, 2024 Robert Jenrick has called for the Tory leadership race to end early so that the winner can be in place to respond to Rachel Reeves’ first Budget. The Chancellor will deliver Labour’s first fiscal statement on 30 October, and the leadership hopeful has argued for a speedier end to the race ahead of the major [...]