Instinct matters in politics. Overthink and you can underperform. Try to box too clever and you get punched in the mouth by an opponent who trusts their own unrestrained judgment. Kemi Badenoch’s newfound popularity within her party is the result of trusting her instincts. The Tory leader is finding that no argument is as persuasive as being herself.
Ahead of the King’s Speech debate, Badenoch had worked hard on a script with some well-honed attack points. But the most memorable line was unscripted. When Wes Streeting, still yet to resign as health secretary, rolled his eyes at one of her points, she replied: ‘There’s no point in him giving me dirty looks – we all know what he’s been up to…’ Cue laughter even from the Labour benches as the minister plotting his ascent was smacked down.
The revival in Badenoch’s popularity, and Tory morale, has been long in the making. This time last year, she was written off as a lost cause. Keir Starmer’s missteps on winter fuel payments and grooming gangs had left him wide open to attack. But Badenoch was nowhere to be seen.
Badenoch is now more popular than Starmer or Farage. The problem is that the Tory brand is still tarnished
Instead, she had made the strategic, albeit controversial, decision to spend her first year developing policy away from the limelight. The belief was that rushed announcements would either be overtaken by events or prove unable to withstand scrutiny. In the absence of a clear Tory campaign against a weak and ineffective Prime Minister, Nigel Farage was able to fill the void.
