Kemi Badenoch: Will she spark a new Conservative comeback?

It’s a busy time in politics. Attention in Britain last week was focused on the Budget - which is likely to be the defining moment of this Labour Government - while this week we look across the pond to the results of the US presidential election.

Another significant political event happened as the new leader of the Conservative Party – Kemi Badenoch - was (finally) elected on Saturday. And it is significant as it should finally herald the Conservative Party moving on from July’s dreadful election defeat and see it emerge into the light again to begin the task of opposing the Government and rebuilding itself.

The contest largely took place under the radar, unlike the contest between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss back in 2022 which was for the more significant prize of becoming Prime Minister, and was characterised by damaging, very public “blue on blue” attacks that shattered what little unity was left in the Conservative Parliamentary Party.

Hopefully, the lower key nature of this leadership campaign will make it easier for Badenoch to draw on talents of those across the party, learning from one of the many failures of the Truss administration - which consciously did not do that. With only 121 MPs, the new Leader of the Opposition will need to get the brightest and best MPs into her shadow team if the party is going to start to find its way back and earn a hearing from the electorate again. And with several former cabinet ministers announcing their return to the backbenches, this challenge has only grown.

However, despite the catastrophic election results, Badenoch is not facing the level of challenge William Hague, for example, as Leader of the Opposition did after Tony Blair’s Labour landslide in 1997. This year, Labour’s victory may have been wide, but it was shallow - and the early missteps of the Government have given Conservatives cause to hope again, although most acknowledge public dissatisfaction with the Government does not automatically translate into support for the party.

Having worked in the Research Department at Central Office in the early 2000s, I can say from first-hand experience that being Leader of the Opposition is not for the faint hearted. It is a gruelling, often demoralising position. Without a strong sense of direction and leadership, it is fraught with the danger the party defines itself against the Labour Government and doesn’t project a positive vision of who either Badenoch or the Conservative Party is for or about.

The new Opposition Leader faces a whole array of immediate challenges. To hit the ground running and look outwards to the country again, rather than focusing on members. To bring together the parliamentary party – both in the Commons and Lords – and ensure there is no descent into internal bickering. To decide where they stand on the Budget and the big legislative bills that are finally starting to arrive in parliament. They will need to sort out Conservative Party headquarters, rebuild the party machine and prepare for next May’s local authority elections – which will be Badenoch’s first big electoral test. And deal with Labour’s attempts to define them early on. So, not much to be getting on with….