Kemi Badenoch is speaking in front of a Storm Shadow missile. A menacing military grey, at seven foot and 3,000 pounds it’s hardly a subtle metaphor for Conservative Party priorities. Only a headscarf and 40 years stand between her and Margaret Thatcher posing on a tank.
The current Tory leader is touring the Leonardo defence lab in Basildon, Essex to highlight her party’s commitment to higher defence spending. But on Monday her sights are set on another target: Sir Keir Starmer. With just days to go before key local elections, Badenoch is heaping high-level pressure on the Prime Minister.
On Tuesday she will force Starmer to face a vote on whether he should be referred to a parliamentary sleaze inquiry over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Even after a weekend of speculation about how long Starmer can remain in post and his possible successors, Badenoch is blithely dismissive of which senior Labour figure could be the next prime minister.
‘I’m not worried about who takes over’
“It’s not my job to help them pick who should replace Keir Starmer,” she says in an exclusive interview with The i Paper. “They are all bad in different ways. I’m not worried about who takes over. All I can see is the Labour Party that doesn’t know what it’s there to do and doesn’t know how to solve problems. We have seen them make a lot of the mistakes which we made previously.”
The Leonardo plant is not far from Badenoch’s own constituency in the north-west of Essex. She is speaking just ten days ahead of May 7, when the county is set to host the biggest set of council elections since 2021. The area is often a national barometer of public opinion, and local authorities could change hands.
The county council has been run by the Conservatives since 2021. But this year Reform UK is breathing down their necks, with an expectation Nigel Farage’s party will make significant gains. Farage also represents an Essex constituency. Shouldn’t Badenoch be focusing on the cost of living, potholes and bin collections ahead of these vital elections, rather than on disgraced ambassador Mandelson?
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch being interviewed by The i Paper‘s Chief Political Commentator Kitty Donaldson“I’m not focusing on Peter Mandelson. Actually, I’m focusing on defence, which is why I’m here today,” the Tory Leader insists. “But I do have a job to do. It’s not my job to give the Prime Minister a free pass. If I think that there are issues, if I believe that he’s misled Parliament, then I’m under obligation to say so. What Labour want me to do is to stop doing my job and give them a round of applause and tell them how fabulous they are, but they’re not. They’re absolutely terrible.”
The Tories and other opposition parties have accused Starmer of misleading Parliament by claiming “due process” was followed in the appointment of Mandelson, and that there was “no pressure whatsoever”. Those claims were contradicted last week by Sir Olly Robbins, sacked by Starmer as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office. The mandarin spoke of “constant pressure” concerning Mandelson’s appointment.
‘This isn’t about Boris Johnson’
The Privileges Committee can examine cases of MPs breaking parliamentary rules. In 2023, it found former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had misled MPs about parties in Downing Street during Covid. “This isn’t a parliamentary gambit, and this isn’t about Boris Johnson. Although I am holding Keir Starmer to the same standards which he held other people,” Badenoch says.
Starmer is expected to whip his MPs to vote against referring him to the committee. By forcing Labour MPs to rebel, is Badenoch effectively forcing a confidence vote which will mean those Labour MPs decline to vote against their leader?
“It’s a handful of people looking to see whether or not there is truth in what’s happened,” she replies. “We haven’t yet got to a position of no confidence. It’s about whether what I think is happening is actually what is happening. We haven’t seen documents released, which should have gone out months ago. The Intelligence and Security Committee have been complaining; very senior civil servants are being thrown under a bus to cover for the Prime Minister. That is not fair; their careers ended, their reputations ruined, because he is not telling the truth. I think that’s quite wrong.”
Over the weekend Starmer launched a fightback to shore up his position. In an effort to clarify his comments in Parliament, Starmer told The Sunday Times there are “different types of pressure”. “There’s pressure – ‘Can we get this done quickly?’ – which is not an unusual pressure. That is the everyday pressure of government,” he said.
Labour’s former Cabinet ministers Alan Johnson and David Blunkett have accused Badenoch of changing the accusations she is levelling against Starmer, calling the effort to refer him to the committee a “nakedly political stunt.” A No 10 spokesman called the vote “desperate.”
‘This is not parliamentary games’
“This is very serious, and I think that it’s quite wrong for people to try and diminish it as parliamentary games,” Badenoch ripostes. “If people are allowed to get away with this sort of behaviour around national security, then all sorts of other terrible things are going to happen, and they’ll keep getting away with it.”
The vote on Tuesday takes place on the same day that senior former government figures are due to give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee including the prime minister’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and former senior civil servant at the Foreign Office Sir Philip Barton.
“Morgan McSweeney is someone who I think is more hated by Labour MPs than anyone else,” Badenoch says. “I think Labour MPs are the ones who have had an issue with him. They think that he’s created a boys’ club in Downing Street. They think that he was the reason why this Mandelson appointment was pushed through. He’s got a lot of questions to answer about the truth of what happened, how a national security risk was pushed through,” Badenoch says.
With no obvious successor to Starmer, Labour’s Cabinet and MPs have been in discussions about how long the Prime Minister should and could remain in post and whether it’s up to senior ministers to tell him time’s up after the local elections, which are expected to be a wipeout for Labour. It’s a point on which Badenoch refuses to be drawn.
“I’m not in the business of setting dates and times. I don’t think that he has any authority, but I think his MPs want to keep him there for as long as possible, because they don’t know who should replace him. He is representative of what the Labour Party is. They don’t have any ideas. They won the election on the back of not being us. They didn’t understand that they needed an agenda, and they don’t have an agenda. I’m trying to show people that the Conservative Party has learned its lessons. We’ve got an agenda. We’re a new party with a new leadership,” she argues.
It’s almost certain both Labour and the Conservatives will lose numerous council seats next week, with some national opinion polls now placing them behind Reform and the Green Party.
Badenoch acknowledges that “multi-party fragmentation” in politics means her party will see different results to four or five years ago. “The important thing for me is that people can see the party is changing,” she says.
The Conservative leader is mostly smiles and charm but comes closest to losing her cool when asked if a Tory councillor wipeout next week would put her job at risk and force her resignation.
“I don’t know any previous leader who has left because of bad local elections. I do wonder why people want special treatment for me, is there a reason why?” she demands.
Asked if the country has drawn a line under the last Tory government, she is more reflective.
“I think that we need to win that trust. I think that people are no longer angry, but they want to know why to trust us again, and that’s what I’m doing. I was told that it would take two years for people to even start listening to us,” she argued.
At Basildon’s shopping mall, there isn’t much sign of any thawing from voters.
Danielle Trimmel a 34-year-old mother and full-time carer to an autistic son said she is tempted by Reform at the local elections having never voted before. “Their messaging is a bit stronger,” she says. “I don’t like the Tories,” Trimmel adds. When asked why, she laughs: “I don’t think that’s something you want on the record.”
Jill, 73, declined to give her surname. A former Labour voter, she admires Badenoch as “really good” but will nonetheless be voting for Reform next week “because the Tories let us down before”. “Nigel needs a chance,” she says.
Travis McMillan, a 30-year-old engineer said he will vote Reform locally because the Tories and Labour are too similar. “I’m just trying something new,” he says.
‘Very important we fight for the union’
The fragmentation of British politics is leading to headaches all over the country. In Wales, nationalists Plaid Cymru – who have pledged to look again at independence – are fighting Reform to take control of the Senedd. In Edinburgh, the SNP, who want another referendum, look set to keep hold of Holyrood.
“I think it’s very important that we fight for the union and make it clear what these parties are trying to do. Many people treat the SNP and Plaid the same way they treat Reform and the Greens: this is a way for us to show discontent, this is a way for us to protest. But they actually have very harmful policies about breaking up our country,” Badenoch says.
“I think that if the SNP get in, we’re going to be having more of these discussions about more referenda. I think Labour is too weak to say no to them, and I just worry that Reform gaining seats in Scotland is a free pass for the SNP. They have pro-independence candidates who are standing, some of whom were former SNP, and it’s because they’re all things to all men.”
Badenoch is also balefully eyeing Zack Polanski’s Greens. Her criticism includes recently elected MP Hannah Spencer who attacked Westminster’s drinking culture, saying “you can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes.”
“I worry about a lot of young people believing that the Greens are a serious party. I mean, we had what’s-her-name, the Green MP, Hannah Spencer talking about how there was drinking in Parliament. This is a woman whose party wants to legalise heroin and LSD, but they’re bothered about people having a glass of wine with their dinner,” Badenoch says.
Asked if MPs drink too much, Badenoch grinned and says, “no more than people in other professions,” including journalists. Touché.
After talking to The i Paper, Badenoch pauses for a photo-op with defence executives who seem extremely pleased to meet her, before departing for London. With Starmer in her direct sights before the Parliamentary session ends on Wednesday, she’s intent on doing him a lot of political damage.
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