After three defections in ten days, what exactly can Kemi Badenoch do to get back on the front foot? This morning, we got our answer. The Tory leader sought to use her big press conference to laugh off the loss of Messers Jenrick, Rosindell and Braverman, in a 20-minute speech which blended levity with gravity. With her back against the wall, Badenoch tried to come out fighting and address the defections head-on. She dismissed those quitting and sought to pivot the conversation to more favourable terrain. In the circumstances, it was probably her only strategy – and she played it as well as she could.
The question of how to best stop Nigel Farage is one that has bedevilled Tory strategists for years. Both David Cameron and Boris Johnson were able to ignore him in 2015 and 2019, effectively talking past him and cutting him out of the conversation. But in 2026, with her party now battling it out for third, Kemi Badenoch no longer has that luxury. She chose today to address the issue head on. She ridiculed the cynicism of Braverman’s defection on Monday under the guise of a veterans’ event. ‘This is a tantrum dressed up as politics,’ she joked. ‘I’m sorry you didn’t win the leadership contest, I’m sorry you didn’t get a job in the shadow cabinet, I’m sorry you didn’t get into the Lords.’ These were jibes aimed squarely at Farage’s latest recruits.
Badenoch then tried to pivot the story of the ‘battle on the right’ away from personalities and back on to parliament. In a lengthy section of her speech she praised the likes of Mel Stride, Claire Coutinho and James Cartlidge for their work on the economy, energy and defence briefs, making much of her ‘talented team.’ ‘I can put together a shadow cabinet’, she quipped, ‘of more than four people.’ Only the Tories, she argued, were properly holding the government to account, work which the voters have thus far proved stubbornly unwilling to reward in the polls. She talked up Chagos and Nato, suggesting that Reform were far too frivolous to tackle such problems on the world stage.
Her delivery was strong, with plenty of smiles and a few good lines. On China, she suggested that Keir Starmer would ‘try to sell the Isle of Wight’; compared with Farage, she was ‘an engineer’, and he ‘a used car salesman.’ She was helped too by a good venue and good ‘vibes’, with a packed 150-strong hall enjoying a warm-up playlist that one lobby veteran likened to ‘Ange in Ibiza’. It ensured that she got roars of approval when journalists dared to suggest that all might not be well in the Tory tent. Her strongest card, in the eye of most Tories, is the party’s institutional strength. She sought to emphasise the inevitability of her team’s recovery, making a pitch for new candidates ahead of 2029.
One cannot help wondering how many of the 115 remaining members of her ‘talented team’ on the green benches will still be there by 7 May, let alone wearing blue rosettes at the next election. But Badenoch’s speech was a passionate and confident attempt to rally the Tory tribe behind her. As we near the run-up to the local elections, she will need that strength in the battles that lie ahead.
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