If the conservatives are doing a little better in the polls it could be because people are returning to them after supporting Reform.
They realise Reform isn't what they thought it would be.
At another time KB may have been good as leader but she is not what they need now.
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Has the Conservative Party peaked after so many years and what can Badenoch do to lead it away from its current decline?
(115 Posts)There is a recent election result that tells a story of Conservative decline along with a series of decisions that confirm that, when it comes to both strategy and judgment, Badenoch is lacking.
Start with the Get Manchester Mayoral contest from a week ago. For many, the standout fact of the byelection to replace Andy Burnham as mayor of Greater Manchester was that Reform came a very poor second, taking just 21% of the vote to Labour’s 47%. A crushing defeat for Nigel Farage’s party, which a matter of weeks earlier had talked up its chances of winning the mayoralty.
But run your finger further down the vote tally until it finally reaches the Conservative candidate on a mere 7.7%. In all the previous mayoral contests in Greater Manchester, the Tories were in second place. This time they were fifth behind Restore Britain a party of the hard right. A Tory result that bad among such a large electorate of 3 million people suggests not merely that Badenoch is making slow progress, but that she is moving her party backwards.
Her strategic response to this competition on the right has been to move towards her rivals, hoping to blunt the appeal of the nationalist populist parties by matching their offer . The latest step came late on Thursday with, as the Telegraph billed it, a Tory “promise to end council housing for foreigners”. Badenoch’s pledge is to evict almost 230,000 non-EU foreign national households from their homes.
Never mind that many of those turfed out will include people who have been living, working and paying taxes in Britain for years. Once evicted, those families, including their children, will be rendered homeless, leaving local councils with the choice of either abandoning them to the streets or providing much costlier emergency accommodation. Consider the timing.
Badenoch decided the right moment to demand foreigners be kicked out of their homes was as the Norfolk town of Thetford entered its third night of violence and disorder, triggered by a mob surrounding the accommodation of suspected asylum seekers, some in the crowd trying to force their way in, as others threw rocks and chanted: “We want them out.” Into this tinderbox of a situation walked the Conservative party leader, clutching a petrol can.
Just a day or two earlier, she had been defending the selection as a Somerset council candidate of Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a man who has served long jail sentences for, among other things, a sustained campaign of antisemitic harassment and abuse of the Jewish former MP Luciana Berger, a campaign that saw Berger branded an “evil money-grabber”, her face superimposed on the body of a rat and photographs of her doctored into multiple, sexualised images. He has offered no apology to Berger. Badenoch herself conceded that Bonehill-Paine would not have cleared the threshold to become an MP but serving as a councillor was different, she explained, as he would be responsible for nothing more than “parking and bins” – thereby, and at a stroke, insulting the many thousands of Conservatives who devote themselves to public service in their local communities. She then appoints him to a national party advisor role.
Badenoch surely must realise she can’t outperform Reform- so what should she do instead to stop her party’s decline
It seemed she was improving and coming across much better, especially at PMQ, but she has made some serious errors of judgement lately.
Well said petra 👏
The Conservative Party is so full of ‘wets’ I think it’s the Liberal Party in reality. Any robust ‘conservative’ value proposals get voted down from their own back benchers. Typically I’m thinking of Anna Soubry, Dominic Grieve and others.
Not for me any more.
I want the small boat crisis fixing. 260 migrants arrived today on a ‘mega’ rubber boat. The same number of people as an aeroplane. It’s beyond ridiculous.
They’ve all got to be fed, clothed, housed and medically catered for. Dentists, mobile phones. I’m heartily sick of keep doing what we’re doing.
Some say Labour are getting a grip behind the scenes but still these boat loads arrive.
I’m voting Reform. They have said they’d leave the ECHR if need. Just do it.
Kemi might try to tackle this but the west as usual wouldn’t let her. The UK needs a party where MPs sing from the same hymn sheet.
KB was coming along nicely, but that latest error was crass.
nanna8
I think Kemi is great. Good speaker, good debater and a good sense of humour. I have watched her in parliament many times and she doesn’t disappoint . Unfortunately she is up against it because many of her fellow MPs aren’t crash hot. I wish people would stop with this reporting lark it is ridiculous unless obscenity is involved.
Yes, I watch her too. Always confrontational and quite often doesn’t get her facts right.
FriedGreenTomatoes2
The Conservative Party is so full of ‘wets’ I think it’s the Liberal Party in reality. Any robust ‘conservative’ value proposals get voted down from their own back benchers. Typically I’m thinking of Anna Soubry, Dominic Grieve and others.
Not for me any more.
I want the small boat crisis fixing. 260 migrants arrived today on a ‘mega’ rubber boat. The same number of people as an aeroplane. It’s beyond ridiculous.
They’ve all got to be fed, clothed, housed and medically catered for. Dentists, mobile phones. I’m heartily sick of keep doing what we’re doing.
Some say Labour are getting a grip behind the scenes but still these boat loads arrive.
I’m voting Reform. They have said they’d leave the ECHR if need. Just do it.
Kemi might try to tackle this but the west as usual wouldn’t let her. The UK needs a party where MPs sing from the same hymn sheet.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
For all those supporters of these migrants -
If not now, when will enough be enough??? How can we continue to absorb thousands and thousands of these (predominately) single young men?
Those of us that are "heartily sick of keep doing what we’re doing" seem to be in the minority on here and I wonder why?
It’s because most of us are realists sundowngirl, and know that this is a problem affecting all first world countries, which cannot be solved by soundbite solutions. You carry on burying your heads in the sand though.
Any detail on what was Kemi's plan to stop the boats, that 'the west" wouldn't let her?
Could it perchance have been indulging in illegal practices? 😲
Casdon
It’s because most of us are realists sundowngirl, and know that this is a problem affecting all first world countries, which cannot be solved by soundbite solutions. You carry on burying your heads in the sand though.
Yes, and will undoubtedly get far worse with continual war and climate change rendering large parts of the world uninhabitable.
Large migrations have happened throughout history, and it tells us that simply trying to block the migrants brings nothing but grief and violence. It won’t work.
What will work however, is cooperation between the countries of the world - but that won’t happen given the calibre of leadership we are enduring.
But hey! Let’s get rid of out grandchildren’s rights in the process and hope we are dead and unaccountable when they are suffering from a rogue government that denies them privacy, the right to marry whom they like, imprisonment without trial and possibly torture.
But it would all be worth it because we’ve stopped those immigrants.
Maremia
Any detail on what was Kemi's plan to stop the boats, that 'the west" wouldn't let her?
Could it perchance have been indulging in illegal practices? 😲
I think the plan is to strip everyone of their human rights, including me and mine...#becarefulwhatyouwish
In that case, 'the west' was correct, to stop her.
Well Conservatives did vote for her as she was elected by the party members. She is actually the most well liked party leader, it’s the rest of the Conservative party’s popularity that lags behind.
She is not aping her rivals— her policies are very much what she believes in. She is getting rid of the ‘wets’ in the party who should join the Lib Dems.
She is our one hope of turning things round.
She isn’t the most liked party leader Marieeast?
yougov.com/en-gb/articles/55228-political-favourability-ratings-july-2026
Oh don’t be silly Whitewave so much hyperbole in your post
Of course our grandchildren will have rights and protection
It’s just the European set of rules Reform UK would be leaving
It's just the Court of Human Rights...nothing to worry about.
In Farage we trust.
Not!!!!!!
Wrong
It’s the EUROPEAN court of human rights
There are others
The world isn’t all Europe
"Let’s get rid of out grandchildren’s rights in the process"
It's my grandchildren's rights and future that I am concerned about! I don't understand why so many on here show little or no concern about theirs.
By allowing thousands and thousands of undocumented men into our country and (if they succeed in claiming asylum), will bring all their families too, my grandchildren will have even less chance of getting jobs/housing etc.
To each their own point of view sundowngirl
Freedom of speech?
sundowngirl
"Let’s get rid of out grandchildren’s rights in the process"
It's my grandchildren's rights and future that I am concerned about! I don't understand why so many on here show little or no concern about theirs.
By allowing thousands and thousands of undocumented men into our country and (if they succeed in claiming asylum), will bring all their families too, my grandchildren will have even less chance of getting jobs/housing etc.
Ssssh you’re not allowed to say the truth on mumsnet/gransnet.
its way too early to reinvigorate the Conservatives, the lack of dentists, queues of ambulances at hospitals etc. are way too fresh in people's minds.
Badenoch is very aggressive in her thinking and presentation, I can't see any swing voters turning to her, and that's how you win elections.
We live in an area which is staunchly conservative. We even have a conservative MP, a rarity these days. At the various social events we go to politics always comes up. Nobody thinks she is the right person to turn things round.
Many, in fact, are willing Andy Burnham to get going and do all he says. We will see if he does.
Hear, hear WhiteWave 12.34 👏👏👏
LissieDrip applauding "it will undoubtedly get far worse with continual war and climate change rendering large parts of the world uninhabitable"
Unbelievable!!
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