{"id":7074341,"date":"2026-10-03T13:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7074341"},"modified":"2026-10-03T13:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T13:07:13","slug":"badenoch-returns-to-conservative-conference-much-stronger-than-a-year-ago-kemi-badenoch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7074341","title":{"rendered":"Badenoch returns to Conservative conference much stronger than a year ago | Kemi Badenoch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">A year ago, Tory MPs were braced for the prospect of yet another leadership battle to topple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/kemi-badenoch\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Kemi Badenoch<\/a> as the party sunk to historic lows of 14-16% in the polls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">At the time, the word \u201cNovember\u201d was uttered in hushed tones \u2013 this being the decisive month when rebels would be able to mount a challenge, Badenoch having served 12 months in office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">But times appear to have changed and \u2013 against the odds \u2013 the Tories have undergone what has been termed a \u201cKeminisation\u201d, with the leader asserting her style and authority on the party, despite its wider poor performance in the polls.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cRight now, Kemi is the only thing that\u2019s holding them up,\u201d says Luke Tryl, the director of the More in Common thinktank, which conducts focus groups and polling. \u201cIf they ditched her, I think they\u2019d be certain for electoral oblivion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Badenoch is running a party still discounted as toxic and incompetent by much of the electorate, but polling numbers and focus groups suggest some of them have recently begun to give her more of a hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The party has crept up from the teens to the low 20s \u2013 occasionally edging ahead of Reform UK for the first time in almost two years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s not great for them, but it\u2019s a lot better,\u201d says Tryl. \u201cThe problem is the party brand. She is now in our approval ratings net neutral and has been net 1 or net 2. She was in the minus 30s and now only her and Burnham have positive approval.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cProgressives don\u2019t like her, but when you come to those who might conceivably be Tory voters there\u2019s a lot of \u2018like her, don\u2019t like the party, she tells it like it is, wish she was in another party\u2019. I do think the Kemi bounce is real. People talk about her having improved and they have seen her PMQs clips.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Data from the other pollsters backs up the idea that the public is more open to Badenoch than before. James Crouch, the head of policy and public affairs at Opinium, said Badenoch\u2019s approval rating had been rising since May 2025, when she was at -27, to -3 in its latest poll. He said that among 2024 Conservative voters she had the approval of 64%, compared with just 8% who did not approve, while of those who voted Conservative in 2019, 56% approved of her, while 16% did not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Further research from YouGov this week found four in 10 people used at least one negative term to describe the Tory leader, one of the most common themes being a perceived unpleasantness. But three in 10 included one or more positive terms in their description, strong and intelligent being the main compliments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Some Tory MPs attribute Badenoch\u2019s improvement over the last year to a willingness to learn and take advice on her performance. This is in spite of her having the preternatural public self-confidence to claim to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/267c7c7e-6596-4ee9-85eb-a0dce1c26f5e?syn-25a6b1a6=1\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">FT this weekend<\/a> that she couldn\u2019t think of any mistakes she had made, saying everyone makes them but \u201cnothing comes to mind\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">But insiders say she has listened to people warning she needs to focus more on the economy and less on culture war talking points, with the party\u2019s conference slogan set as \u201cStronger economy, stronger country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">She has also improved her prime minister\u2019s questions appearances, partly with help on preparation from Conservative grandees such as David Cameron.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Tory MPs believe a turning point for Badenoch was the defection of Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman to Reform \u2013 because their departure removed a source of destabilisation on the right, and it gave her an opportunity to show decisiveness in pushing Jenrick before he jumped. She has also been aided by the increasing questions over Nigel Farage and Reform UK\u2019s finances, with the party\u2019s dominance in the polls slipping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">However, the arrival of Andy Burnham on the scene for Labour has changed things.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Giles Kenningham, the former Conservative director of communications who now leads the Trafalgar Strategy advisory firm, says Burnham \u201craises the bar \u2026 he\u2019s a great communicator and comfortable in his own skin\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cIt\u2019s a harder ask now. Starmer was not a great orator or someone who electrified voters \u2026 Burnham has had a great conference but all eyes are now on the budget, so her conference needs to be on the economy and welfare. John Healey\u2019s speech didn\u2019t say anything, and there is an opportunity for Badenoch to put pressure on them and drive the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Badenoch\u2019s star has also risen further with the membership of the party, the most recent ConservativeHome poll showing she has a 87% net satisfaction rating with the party faithful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Despite this, a number of Conservative aides and insiders believe that Badenoch\u2019s future is still not totally secure if the party does not start to creep above Reform UK on a sustained basis. One pointed to the Tory selection races \u2013 excluding some high-profile former MPs from standing \u2013 as a sign of perceived weakness that those around Badenoch are worried about her being challenged. \u201cShe is not alone among politicians in not liking tall poppies,\u201d said one Conservative strategist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cUltimately, she is not immune from a challenge,\u201d said another. \u201cThe shelf life of politicians is getting shorter and shorter. Leaders are much more exposed and the job is precarious. The thing most in her favour is that there are currently no other obvious contenders.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A year ago, Tory MPs were braced for the prospect of yet another leadership battle to topple Kemi Badenoch as the party sunk to historic lows of 14-16% in the polls. At the time, the word \u201cNovember\u201d was uttered in hushed tones \u2013 this being the decisive month when rebels would be able to mount [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7074342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[235037,235036,98364,101968,130645,182,12501],"tags":[101971,7908,31998,110448,10970,12758,629],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7074341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-conference","category-conservative-leadership","category-conservatives","category-kemi-badenoch","category-opinion-polls","category-politics","category-uk-news","tag-badenoch","tag-conference","tag-conservative","tag-kemi","tag-returns","tag-stronger","tag-year"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Badenoch returns to Conservative conference much stronger than a year ago | Kemi Badenoch - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7074341\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Badenoch returns to Conservative conference much stronger than a year ago | Kemi Badenoch - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A year ago, Tory MPs were braced for the prospect of yet another leadership battle to topple Kemi Badenoch as the party sunk to historic lows of 14-16% in the polls. 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