The Guardian
· collected 2026-10-07 · by Peter Walker, Pippa Crerar, Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot
Story summary
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party, returned to their annual conference in Birmingham this year much stronger than a year ago when she faced potential leadership challenges. Despite the party's poor performance in polls, which had once suggested her tenure could last only until November 2024, Badenoch has managed to stabilize and even strengthen her position within the party. Support for her leadership has grown among both MPs and the public, with some suggesting that ditching her would lead to certain electoral disaster.
Badenoch's leadership has seen the Conservatives' poll numbers creep up from the teens to the low 20s, occasionally surpassing Reform UK in recent months. She is presenting a more unified party, emphasizing right-leaning policies and distancing herself from moderates who oppose net-zero goals and human rights protections. During her conference speech, she announced plans to exempt people's homes from inheritance tax, an idea largely theoretical outside of London and the south-east due to its £500,000 threshold.
The Conservative party’s unity under Badenoch is also attributed to the departure of high-profile rivals such as Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman. However, despite internal cohesion, many MPs believe the party needs to shift focus towards economic issues rather than cultural debates if it hopes to win back voters.
Written for “Tory Party Support For Badenoch” on 2026-10-07,
grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.
Kemi Badenoch has long said that the Conservatives were “under new management”, but in a TV interview to mark the end of a party conference at which she has been front and centre of more or less everything, she took the analogy further.
asserted
she → say → analogy
“Your viewers will know that sometimes you have a football team that’s disappointing,” the Tory leader told GB News.
asserted
leader → know → News
“There’s a new captain, there’s a new coach, there’s a new owner, effectively – which is all me.”
asserted
which → ’ → ?
These are bold words even for a politician known to possess an iron-clad self confidence.
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These → know → confidence
Badenoch is not only outperforming her party in polling terms, she is busy remaking it in her own image.
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she → outperform → image
The broad ideological direction was already set, with Badenoch saying explicitly at the start of this year that centrist ideas were no longer wanted.
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ideas → set → year
Some more moderate figures remain in her shadow cabinet, but they are signed up to a right-leaning agenda, including opposition to net zero and a bonfire of human rights protections.
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they → remain → protections
Those around Badenoch say, however, that her control goes further, with policy decisions such as the move to grant free childcare to people with incomes above £100,000, announced on the eve of the conference, made simply because she believes they are the right thing to do.
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they → say → conference
“With policies it’s not about chasing certain groups of voters,” one shadow cabinet minister said.
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minister → ’ → voters
“She focuses on what she thinks needs to be fixed, what she feels is wrong.”
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she → focus → ?
Talking her out of a policy decision, they said, was a tall order: “It’s not going to happen – it’s tablets of stone.
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it → talk → stone
She’s not going to change her mind.
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She → go → mind
She knows what the policies have to be.”
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policies → know → what
Many political parties are, to a greater or less extent, a cult based around the leader, but this is particularly the case for the 2026-period Conservatives, where MPs say Badenoch is talked about on the doorsteps with an admiration and respect not accorded to their party more widely.
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Badenoch → base → party
MPs recount how her name is raised unprompted.
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name → recount → ?
One said: “She’s brought up in a positive way.
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She → say → way
Crucially, in a world where most people couldn’t name more than a handful of politicians, they know who she is.”
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she → name → politicians
This starring role was obvious throughout the Conservatives’ conference in Birmingham, not least Badenoch’s arrival, which saw her greeted by a flag-waving crowd of activists chanting: “Kemi, Kemi.”
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her → star → Kemi
Inside the venue, Badenoch was the heroic centrepiece of the party’s “Birmingham tapestry”, shown in mocked-up 12th-century form doing everything from chastising Wes Streeting to sitting in the turret of a tank.
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Badenoch → show → tank
Such veneration is not just wishful thinking by a party eager to move on from a revolving door of previous leaders.
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veneration → move → leaders
While last year’s conference was viewed as make-or-break for Badenoch, even with her party still bumping along at 20% or so in the polls her position is now seen as secure, with the Conservatives more unified than they have been for years.
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they → view → years
This is in part the result of some serial malcontents leaving for Reform UK, especially Robert Jenrick, as well as the party’s diminished size in the Commons, which as one shadow cabinet minister notes, is too small for factions: “We could just about fill a corner table in Pizza Express.”
uncertain
We → leave → Express
There are still private doubts, including Badenoch’s instinct to lean into culture wars rather than focus on the economy, which those around her believe is the party’s strongest electoral card.
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those → be → her
Some party figures also wonder if Badenoch is thinking about election strategy at all with her very personal suite of policy choices, which in Birmingham mainly consisted of giving tax breaks to wealthier people.
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which → wonder → people
This was capped in her end-of-conference speech with the announcement that a Badenoch-led government would exempt people’s homes from inheritance tax, an idea which, given that the levy only begins on property worth more than £500,000, is a largely theoretical idea outside London and the south-east of England.
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levy → cap → England
While such policies could be appealing to prosperous home counties voters who defected to the Liberal Democrats in 2024, this does not seem to be the plan.
uncertain
this → appeal → 2024
During another TV interview, Badenoch chided her questioner for suggesting her tax cuts were aimed at bringing back such support.
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cuts → chide → support
“I’m very sad that you’re looking at this in crude electoral terms,” she said.
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she → ’m → terms
“That’s how we’ve all got into this problem where we keep thinking about winning elections rather than thinking about what works.”
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what → ’ → elections
One former Tory strategist said there was a risk of incoherence: “I can’t understand what is being achieved with these announcements.
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what → say → announcements
There was, they added, little chance things would change: “People are scared of her to be honest.
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People → be → her
I think a lot of her team don’t know how to say no to her.
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lot → think → her
However, much like football, politics is not a one-person game, and a star player or manager will only get you so far.
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player → get → you
And while Badenoch was at pains to praise colleagues in her speech, it is fair to say that the rest of the shadow cabinet is lagging.
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rest → praise → cabinet
Andrew Griffith, Badenoch’s new shadow chancellor, was feted by his boss for his private sector business expertise.
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Griffith → fete → expertise
But on Monday he gave a speech widely seen as one of the worst delivered to any conference in years.
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he → give → years
While Badenoch is recognised by 90% of voters, according to YouGov polling, only 22% say they know who Griffith is.
uncertain
Griffith → recognise → polling
A number of his colleagues are on similar ratings, with pollsters saying even these are likely to be inflated by people who don’t want to admit ignorance.
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who → say → ignorance
The experienced Tom Tugendhat, now in the foreign affairs brief, does slightly better, on 46%.
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Tugendhat → do → %
Laura Trott, the shadow education secretary, hits 50%, but this is because some people mistake her for the Olympic cyclist, now Laura Kenny, formerly of the same name.
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people → hit → name
…and 7 more, not listed.
The Aporia
