The Spectator 
The results of the Conservative leadership contest are in. Almost four months after the Tory party suffered its worst general defeat in its history, Kemi Badenoch has been crowned as the party’s new leader. Badenoch won 53,806 votes to Robert Jenrick on 41,318 – the turnout was 72.8 per cent, down on the 2022 contest which saw a turnout of 82.2 per cent.
How will Badenoch change the Conservative party? Can she win against Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage? And what will her first 100 days look like? Michael Gove and Katy Balls discuss the outcome with Cindy Yu.
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About The Author
I'm worried about the editorship of Michael. Here he is talking as a journalist when he was a player. When he talks about Conservative politics I believe his recent proximity and familiarity as an actor undermines his reliability as a commentator. It just feels wrong for a range of reasons; insider knowledge, insider bias, bias from former enemies and supporters. It's a bit 3 D chess complex. Or am I wrong?
No.
No . Next question …
These lot Michael and spectator are part of her team
Nothing will change
Great to see you back in journalism Michael. The attribution in some quarters of 'schemer', 'master of the dark arts' etc is really very unfair. I like to think of Michael as the Tory Mike Pence. Let's never forget how twice he stood up to BJ and put country before career…
If Kemi would just state, I will leave the ECHR, I will stop immigration until we sort out our housing crisis. I will deport everyone who has no right to be here then reform would lose 75% of its' voters. The path is clear just to what the disaffected want of you.
Ha ha, the tories choose yet another useless bullshitter as leader…. 😄
Final nail in the coffin of the Conservative party
Gove & Kemi = traitors to the country. They should be in prison. 🤮🤮🤮
She was voted as leader for the same reason Kamala Harris was made VP.
There's already not much of a country to win back. After four years of Keir Starmer surrendering sovereignty to the WEF, you'll probably have more responsibility as a manager of a local McDonald's.
😂😂😂😂😂 no a Nigerian immigrant whose mother came here two weeks before she was due to give birth and had her on our NHS, she then took her home and sent her back for an education.
Not a chance. She won't change anything. I like her. She made a number a powerful speeches in parliament and other forums related to the culture wars. Alas, she won't make any serious effort to overhaul the broken immigration system.
No
No she cant, wrong person selected, so Reform all the way now
Unless she agrees to remigration and apologises for the abhorrent levels of immigration that she was a part of.
Not going to happen, the Tories are done.
Got my vote – the Tories have a Black female leader, and Labour can’t even have one on the front bench – Speaks volumes in 2024. Impressive. Complete game changer.
No – but look, the cycle of hacks might be over now. After Kemi, who's left to ransack the party? And if the US doesn't elect Trump, then she has no ideological leader to booster. There will be nothing left of the Conservatives after Kemi is gone so they will have no choice but to build after that (i.e. be a good party after that – I wish they took Tugendhat and this cycle of purification would have been over). So oblivion first (with Kemi), then humble pie, then rethink. This person is incapable of humility (silence won't do in opposition), humility was a weakness in Mrs. T's book (she only showed contrition far too late) and there's no 'strong' solution here…there's only the ability of the party to go around the country and say I'm sorry (and to mean it) and seek forgiveness. She's not the person to do that. No one will believe her. The pain is too deep for symbols and hot air.
Get Boris to go on a country run with her for a public symbolic flogging. It will get publicity at least. But after that, I see no path in which she could become PM. Keir and co are doing a good job (will increase defence spending, cut immigration, seek energy independence anyway) and I don't think she can do better than that. And the worse stuff – well, I doubt anyone would believe that she could rally British troops to money grab as she has no military experience. So I just don't know really how she can fill the UK bank. Labour is already in negotiations with China, abolishing human rights wont make a difference if you can't make war, she could join the troublemakers to whip up more demand for UK arms, but that's such a saturated market now and off trend. She could drive British engineering with her background – but it seems Labour has got the support of that class. No, even if the identity stuff alone isn't extremely difficult (racial discrimination unfortunately still plays a role in our society), I just don't see the economic and political arguments for her to win. Now with the threshold being 33%, this is will be a long and winding B road off wilderness-land.
It should have been titled can she go back to her own country – please I would not vote for her in a million years we just don't need a DEI who's first language is not English and was voted in by 50k members and a few moronic politicians – you really believe 65 million people will accept an African brought up in Nigeria ?
No.
I approve of Kemi as leader, I like her and I think she will do her best, but her party is the problem. The Tory MPs no longer understand what it means to be conservative. I will probably never lend my vote to them again. I didn't in the last election. What happened under them to children with gender ideology and to the population at large because of the spiralling immigration, legal and illegal, disgusted me and lost my vote. ReformUK now for me.
“We stand against identity politics”
“Look! We elected a black woman. Take that leftists!”
If "Kemi" was anti-woke, she wouldn't have even considered running to be leader of a country she didn't even arrive in properly until she was 16.
Any Tory who thinks you can save the country by agreeing with the ground rules of those who are trying to destroy it, and that is exactly what you are doing when you think a black woman will somehow protect the party (even if she and it wanted to save the country – which they do not) from this or that accusation, you are the biggest fool going.
If she wouldn't set out policy ideas on what basis did the Tory members choose Badenoch? And really Michael! To say Starmer has a problem with women is silly. He's surrounded by them – Deputy PM, Chancellor, Home Sec, Education Sec etc.
It doesn't matter whether labour have had no female leaders and the tories have had four. Who has ever passed legislation to help women? The equalities act – labour. Maternity pay – labour. equal pay – labour. sex discrimination act – labour…. and on and on. What have the tories ever done for women? Absolutely nothing. It's tokenism to make up for their complete lack of substance.
Nope. Will never vote Tory again. Reform all the way.
The tories have just flushed down the toilet any slim chance of winning the next election, what a load of dummies!
No chance of Conservatives winning a general election for years to come. The church is too broad and Kemi will have the same problems with internal differences. I voted Conservatives for years but its Reform all the way for me now.
I would vote for Kermit The Frog, off The Muppets, but where is he now? 🎉
Can she win it back you ask? They don’t deserve it!!
In answer to the question posed, NO! Her mothered gamed the system to give her daughter a British passport. I'm confident that this new Tory leader supports such processes against Britons.
I doubt it because Black Women are the number #1 adversary of the right wing because we are one of the few to not be brainwashed by white supremacy (& it stings even more since white women typically are very embracing of black men). She has their mindset but she’s still a BW so I doubt she’ll be able to get most of them & the comments alone prove that