Is the Right ready to take advantage of a fractious Left in the increasingly unlikely scenario that Andy Burnham will call a general election if he becomes Prime Minister? It is hard to see it is, given the showing of Kemi Badenoch at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London today. Where is the enthusiasm for the Tory leader?
Where is the enthusiasm for the Tory leader?
If there ever was a friendly audience for a Conservative leader, ARC ought to be it. The conference – which was co-founded by Sir Paul Marshall, proprietor of The Spectator – is nothing if not a staunch platform for social conservatism, and has attracted large audiences for the likes of Jordan Peterson. Yet the polite applause – lukewarm and sporadic might be better words – awarded to Badenoch contrasts somewhat awkwardly with the adulation which seems to greet Andy Burnham wherever he goes at the moment.
It is not that there was anything wrong with what Badenoch had to say. She touched on all the areas which ought to press the right buttons with conservatives.
On the issue of family, she went a little further than mainstream politicians have dared to go for many years, attacking a culture which promotes the joys of childlessness over those of raising a family – while also suggesting that we needn’t expect much in the way of tax breaks for parents should the Conservatives find their way back to power as these have never worked well.
