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.
- Published
It is Kemi Badenoch's Conservative Party now.
asserted
It → publish → ?
Implicitly and explicitly, that was the message from the Tories' annual conference, which has wrapped up in Birmingham.
asserted
which → wrap → Birmingham
It is a party very much united around her, with no murmurings of dissent about her leadership, which is quite the contrast from a year ago.
asserted
which → unite → leadership
The pivot point in her time as Conservative leader so far came in her address to this same gathering 12 months back, when, amid constant chatter about the prospect of Robert Jenrick seeking to topple her, she won over the party faithful with an address that oozed confidence.
asserted
that → come → confidence
Us reporters were given her speech script, allowing us to follow it line-by-line to help us report what she has said quickly and accurately.
asserted
she → give → what
On that page was the Conservative crowd pleaser of a plan to scrap stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland.
asserted
pleaser → scrap → England
There was plenty of chat throughout the conference and beforehand of a new policy coming on inheritance tax, and, sure enough, another page was missing towards the end of her speech with her plan on that.
asserted
page → be → that
The plan reopens the fascinating politics and psychology of inheritance tax – which is paid by fewer than one in 20 people, external but has been described as the country's most unpopular tax, external.
asserted
which → reopen → tax
Advocates of cutting or scrapping it say it is because plenty aspire to one day being rich enough to end up having to pay it, plus it is a second tax on already taxed income.
asserted
it → cut → income
But the Conservatives' opponents, even before this speech, were already looking forward to the argument they anticipated after it.
asserted
they → look → it
Reform UK, for instance, claim it is a "tax cut for multi-millionaires" and that their plan to cut income tax for millions by raising the threshold at which most people start paying it will benefit far more people.
uncertain
people → reform → people
Policy announcements aside, what stood out in this speech for me was a broader point.
asserted
stood → stand → me
The veteran Conservative elections strategist Sir Lynton Crosby once suggested the party ought to "scrape the barnacles off the boat" as he put it, in reference to unpopular policies that could cause the Tories a headache during an election campaign.
uncertain
that → suggest → campaign
This speech felt like Badenoch revelling in pointing at the clean hull of the Conservative ship, what she sees as those barnacles removed, not least the high-profile defections of Jenrick and Suella Braverman.
asserted
she → feel → Jenrick
She sought to portray them as sleazy and pointedly decided to lean into an argument of recent months about Englishness.
asserted
She → seek → Englishness
Braverman has argued that, given her Asian heritage, "I'm not English".
asserted
I → argue → heritage
My family and ancestors have a link to Britain which spans centuries.
asserted
which → have → centuries
But in no way are we English," she wrote on social media last month, external, adding: "Englishness is an ethnicity."
asserted
Englishness → write → media
Badenoch expressed her personal fury at this, saying that as the mother of mixed-race children "I don't want to explain to my son, when we're watching our brilliant England team play football, that some people don't think our black players are English".
asserted
players → express → football
The recurring message, today and over the last few days, is Badenoch cannot stand Reform and won't work with them before or after the next general election.
But what she said amounted to an attack on Reform's character and the judgement of their prominent figures, rather than a significant focus on the policies we hear talked about most often by Nigel Farage.
asserted
we → recur → Farage
Badenoch did talk about immigration, but not at length.
asserted
Badenoch → talk → length
She largely left the issue – and the Conservative policy to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, as Reform also advocates - to her shadow home secretary Chris Philp who spoke before her.
asserted
who → leave → her
Instead, Badenoch grounded this speech in the big picture tussle to be trusted between Labour and the Conservatives – and in particular who was better placed to deliver a growing economy.
asserted
who → ground → economy
Badenoch and Burnham both look like they are enjoying themselves on the stage, and are both enthusiastic purveyors of the core of what are their very different worldviews.
asserted
what → look → core
Badenoch acknowledged this with what she called the "battle for the soul of this nation" in the opening minute or so of her address.
asserted
she → acknowledge → address
It is a trailer for the debate to come this autumn and beyond.
asserted
debate → come → ?
The Conservatives feel chipper and are united.
asserted
Conservatives → feel → ?
And, as Kemi Badenoch acknowledged, they are not there on that score yet, by a long chalk, with opinion polls suggesting they are more unpopular than when they were annihilated at the last general election.
asserted
they → acknowledge → election
But they hope things are looking up for them: Reform has had a bruising few months, and Labour, they believe, are leaning to the Left, trying to lure Green and Liberal Democrat supporters towards them.
asserted
they → hope → them
Can the Conservatives also lure recent Lib Dem supporters in the south of England with talk of help with childcare costs whatever your income, not hiking the council tax of very expensive homes and this inheritance tax plan?
asserted
income → lure → homes
This, Tories hope, there are now gaps in the political market they can exploit.
asserted
they → hope → market
They crave catching and overtaking Reform in the polls, in the hope that after that there is a tipping point allowing them to credibly claim they are the most viable alternative to a Labour or Labour-led future government.
uncertain
they → crave → government
Let's see.
asserted
's → see → ?
The Aporia
