Kemi Badenoch is seeking to set out a new Tory policy agenda – but she will face fights on several fronts at her first Conservative Party conference since she took over as leader this week.
She used the lead-up to the gathering to unveil punchy policies, including a promise to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and to abolish climate change targets if her party won an election.
But this may not have been enough to assuage her critics. The party remains third in the polls behind Labour and Reform UK – and there is backroom plotting to replace her with Robert Jenrick, who came second to her in last year’s leadership race.
Here are the four flashpoints she faces as she attempts to set out a fresh start for her party in Manchester.
Backlash on climate policy
Shortly before the conference, the party announced that it would scrap the UK’s landmark climate change legislation if it won the next general election.
Badenoch stated that the Tories would abolish the Climate Change Act 2008, which sets legally binding emission reduction targets, and replace it with a strategy focused on providing “cheap and reliable” energy.
The original law, introduced under Labour’s Gordon Brown, committed the Government to hitting an 80 per cent reduction by 2050, but it was updated by Conservative prime minister Theresa May in 2019 to require the UK to hit net zero by the same date.
Badenoch said that the current laws “tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions”, adding: “Under my leadership, we will scrap those failed targets. Our priority now is growth, cheaper energy, and protecting the natural landscapes we all love.”
But her approach has prompted an intense backlash from within the party, with May calling her successor’s plans a “catastrophic mistake”.
“I am deeply disappointed by this retrograde step, which upends 17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community,” she said.
Ex-Cabinet minister Alok Sharma, a former COP26 President, also warned that “the path to a prosperous, secure and electable future for the Conservative Party lies in building on our achievements, not abandoning them”. He said the party risked losing “voters, especially younger people and those in key marginal seats”.
As the conference goes on, this new policy could expose a serious divide between climate-conscious Conservatives and those further to the right who would happily see net zero abandoned. There will also be debate over whether following Reform’s lead on net zero will win back voters or alienate moderates.
A man walks past a stall selling artwork on the first day of the Conservative Party conference (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)Out-Reforming Reform
There’s no denying that the rise of Reform is a central driver in the Conservatives’ ongoing decline in the polls.
A recent YouGov mega poll suggested that if an election were held now, Reform could win 311 seats, just 15 short of a Commons majority. The Conservatives would fall to fourth place with 45 seats, behind the Lib Dems on 78 and Labour on 144.
The next election is likely a long way away, but this poll underlines the challenge that the Conservatives are facing as they consider how to counter Nigel Farage’s party.
There are two schools of thought: wait and let Reform burn out, or take the fight to Farage now.
Badenoch told the BBC that unlike Labour and Reform, she would not “rush out” new policies, but would “take time to get it right”.
“It’s not about being the first to announce a policy,” she said. “It’s about having the best policy.”
Some Conservatives, however, want more urgency. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said the party should have gotten “our show on the road much sooner than we have”. “We need to start to pull our socks up… start to communicate better and start to outline what a positive Conservative Party can deliver,” he added.
Others already want a new leader. Talks of a plot against Badenoch have resurfaced, with some hoping Jenrick might broker a deal with Reform if she is ousted. Some right-wingers have even floated merging with Reform, though there’s little sign Farage would endorse that.
The main exhibition hall on the first day of the Conservative party conference (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)Leaving the ECHR
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its future have long been a focal point of the Conservative Party’s debate over immigration.
After years of internal pressure, Badenoch confirmed the party would quit the convention if it were to win the next election – a shift from her earlier position that doing so would not be a “silver bullet”.
She said: “I have not come to this decision lightly, but it is clear that it is necessary to protect our borders, our veterans, and our citizens.”
She added that the plan was “backed by legal advice from a distinguished King’s Counsel”.
That review, set up in June and led by Lord Wolfson, found that the ECHR “places significant constraints” in areas such as deportations, veterans’ protections and sentencing, and that alternative attempts to soften it would be ineffective.
But this approach threatens to open up a rift between the right wing of the party and the more moderate One Nation caucus. In 2023, its then chair Damian Green warned that staying in the ECHR is a “red line” for them.
This could be exacerbated by the fact that Badenoch has said that she will block the selection of Tory candidates who disagree with her stance on the ECHR.
In an interview with GB News, Badenoch said: “If you do not agree with leaving the ECHR, then you should not and cannot stand as a Conservative candidate at the next election. They can be in the party but they cannot stand as MPs.”
This could also be read as a warning to current Tory MPs: get in line on the ECHR or risk losing the party whip.
Kemi Badenoch with her shadow cabinet (Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)Pressure on her performance
Badenoch made a blunder on the BBC last week, where she mistakenly said Northern Ireland had voted for Brexit. In fact, the nation voted by 56 per cent to 44 per cent in favour of staying in the EU.
Since she took over as leader, questions have repeatedly been raised about her own performance at Prime Minister’s Questions and during media appearances and interviews. There are concerns within her own party over whether she is doing enough to tackle both the threat of Reform and hold the Labour government to account.
Some Conservatives have privately suggested that this conference, her first as party leader, is her last chance to win over her doubters before a coup is launched against her.
The i Paper reported last week that allies of Jenrick are collecting no-confidence letters from Conservative MPs, with up to a dozen having already been submitted.
Party rules state that 36 such letters would be needed for a no-confidence motion to pass, which would then be followed by a ballot of MPs.
A leadership challenge cannot be launched in a leader’s first year, but time is running out for Badenoch – her first anniversary is on 3 November.
Others predict that she will stay on for now – but faces being ousted after May’s Scottish, Welsh and English elections if the results go badly for the party.
Either way, the pressure is on, and Badenoch may need to prove that she can lead the party better than Jenrick, who lost to her in last year’s leadership contest by over 12,000 votes.
She has already firmly parked her tanks on Jenrick’s lawn by promising to leave the ECHR, something he pledged to do in his ill-fated leadership bid. He was also left off the cover of the party conference guide.
And she has indicated that she is ready to put up a fight against critics, telling them to “hold your nerve” as she gets things done.
Speaking to The Telegraph, she said: “We are the only party that can deliver a stronger economy and stronger borders. If we don’t hold our nerve, we are giving our country up. That is not right.”
She added: “The last oppositions took 14, 13 and 18 years [to get back into power]. People have been asking me why the polls haven’t improved within a couple of weeks of being leader.”
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