19 hours agoShareSaveLaura KuenssbergPresenter, Sunday with Laura KuenssbergShareSaveBBC”Oh God,” and then a pause, a sigh, and then, “Oh God,” again.Just as a senior Conservative was telling me the party might be able to climb out the terrible hole it’s in, news popped up of another of its ranks deserting for Reform UK. Their response?Sad resignation, at yet another resignation.The individual exit of Sarah Atherton, who was briefly a defence minister when the Tories were in power, is not the point. Well over a dozen Conservative MPs or former MPs have made that same move. The question for the Conservatives perhaps this weekend is: is there a point?You don’t need me to tell you that the Conservatives are unpopular – deeply so. The hangover from the last election was always going to be nasty after a proper thumping, 14 years in power, and, oh yes, those five prime ministers. But the party’s standing has fallen even further since then.No discernible bounce with its new leadership under Kemi Badenoch. No profit from the misery of the government. For the group once regarded as the most successful political operation in the western world, it’s dire.Technically, the Tories are still the main opposition. That brings status and meaning. It’s Badenoch who gets to ask six questions of the prime minister every week. It’s the Conservatives who, as is traditional, are most often called on to respond to government announcements. They still have way more MPs than the Liberal Democrats, or the SNP, and legions more than Reform or the Greens.But politically, it just doesn’t feel at this moment that they are the government’s hungry main challengers. That’s in part because they were smashed to bits in July 2024 and it was always going to take a bit of time to come round.It’s in part because the party is so far behind in the polls. It’s in part because the government is very deliberately making its arguments against Reform, not their traditional Conservative rivals.As another senior party figure observes, Labour’s “framing of cutting the Tories out is the right one”.It suits Labour and the Lib Dems to treat the Tories as if they are irrelevant. And it’s in part, many Conservatives argue, because Badenoch “just hasn’t generated any traction, any attention” during her time in charge.As the Conservatives arrive in Manchester for their conference, in the very serious aftermath of the attack on Heaton Park synagogue, the primary job is to grab any attention: perhaps the Tory party is smack bang in the middle of a battle to matter at all.ReutersLike it or not, just as Sir Keir Starmer has discovered, grumpy parties who are not doing well point the finger at their leader. Badenoch has admirers in the Conservative Party for speaking out on particular issues like single-sex spaces, free speech, or declaring that some cultures are in her view “less valid” than others. Some of her colleagues applaud her blunt, tell-it-like-it-is manner.But politics is also a business of charm and empathy. A senior Tory told me after the election defeat the party had to “go everywhere and do a mea culpa, to listen and take a kicking”. But the issue with Badenoch, they say, is “she is grand… hasn’t been anywhere and isn’t listening to anyone”. Ouch.With conference about to start, it’s almost a Tory tradition to fill the papers and podcasts with gripes about the party leader. She has had some more effective performances at Prime Minister’s Questions. Policies are starting to emerge. Money has kept flowing to the party. One of her backers maintains that although she is still “finding her way”, she has some of the same “strength and character as a young Margaret Thatcher”. Thatcher was seen as “strange and shrill” when she got the job, but became the party’s most successful boss of modern times. But as Badenoch approaches a year in the job, it’s becoming harder to find people who’ll make that comparison.Whatever Badenoch’s personal strengths and failures, there is a different criticism of how she has gone about the job, with a party veteran suggesting, “there is just no pace, no nimbleness”.Maybe that should have been staring the party in the face: her original pitch for the job was “Renewal 2030” – a date past the next general election.During many of her interviews Badenoch has said she wants to take her time working out the right moves for the party, developing credible ideas rather than being rushed. You can expect lots of policy to be unveiled in the next few days.But politics moves incredibly fast, and another source agrees pace is a problem, saying: “What she misunderstood is you get one chance to introduce yourself to the public – she lost the chance to generate any traction and she won’t get that back.”Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was only too happy to step into that “vacuum”, gaining strength in the polls and grabbing headlines while the Tories were busy making other plans.Getty ImagesCandidly, it is not unusual to hear Conservatives saying freely in private that Badenoch won’t be in the job for long, she could be “out by Christmas”, or “might not even have to be dragged out” if the party bombs at the polls in a set of mega elections in May.Indeed, when asked the question herself in a conference warm-up interview, she more or less said: Well, ask me then.Refreshingly honest from a leader who isn’t fully in control of her own destiny? Or foolhardy when this is a moment when she ought to be mustering as much authority as she can? The conference gives a shop window to the party and its leader to show what she is made of too.As one senior MP says: “This conference is about her, and making it clear she has a direction and a sense of where she is going, and it is hers and she is going to l …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nn19 hours agoShareSaveLaura KuenssbergPresenter, Sunday with Laura KuenssbergShareSaveBBC”Oh God,” and then a pause, a sigh, and then, “Oh God,” again.Just as a senior Conservative was telling me the party might be able to climb out the terrible hole it’s in, news popped up of another of its ranks deserting for Reform UK. Their response?Sad resignation, at yet another resignation.The individual exit of Sarah Atherton, who was briefly a defence minister when the Tories were in power, is not the point. Well over a dozen Conservative MPs or former MPs have made that same move. The question for the Conservatives perhaps this weekend is: is there a point?You don’t need me to tell you that the Conservatives are unpopular – deeply so. The hangover from the last election was always going to be nasty after a proper thumping, 14 years in power, and, oh yes, those five prime ministers. But the party’s standing has fallen even further since then.No discernible bounce with its new leadership under Kemi Badenoch. No profit from the misery of the government. For the group once regarded as the most successful political operation in the western world, it’s dire.Technically, the Tories are still the main opposition. That brings status and meaning. It’s Badenoch who gets to ask six questions of the prime minister every week. It’s the Conservatives who, as is traditional, are most often called on to respond to government announcements. They still have way more MPs than the Liberal Democrats, or the SNP, and legions more than Reform or the Greens.But politically, it just doesn’t feel at this moment that they are the government’s hungry main challengers. That’s in part because they were smashed to bits in July 2024 and it was always going to take a bit of time to come round.It’s in part because the party is so far behind in the polls. It’s in part because the government is very deliberately making its arguments against Reform, not their traditional Conservative rivals.As another senior party figure observes, Labour’s “framing of cutting the Tories out is the right one”.It suits Labour and the Lib Dems to treat the Tories as if they are irrelevant. And it’s in part, many Conservatives argue, because Badenoch “just hasn’t generated any traction, any attention” during her time in charge.As the Conservatives arrive in Manchester for their conference, in the very serious aftermath of the attack on Heaton Park synagogue, the primary job is to grab any attention: perhaps the Tory party is smack bang in the middle of a battle to matter at all.ReutersLike it or not, just as Sir Keir Starmer has discovered, grumpy parties who are not doing well point the finger at their leader. Badenoch has admirers in the Conservative Party for speaking out on particular issues like single-sex spaces, free speech, or declaring that some cultures are in her view “less valid” than others. Some of her colleagues applaud her blunt, tell-it-like-it-is manner.But politics is also a business of charm and empathy. A senior Tory told me after the election defeat the party had to “go everywhere and do a mea culpa, to listen and take a kicking”. But the issue with Badenoch, they say, is “she is grand… hasn’t been anywhere and isn’t listening to anyone”. Ouch.With conference about to start, it’s almost a Tory tradition to fill the papers and podcasts with gripes about the party leader. She has had some more effective performances at Prime Minister’s Questions. Policies are starting to emerge. Money has kept flowing to the party. One of her backers maintains that although she is still “finding her way”, she has some of the same “strength and character as a young Margaret Thatcher”. Thatcher was seen as “strange and shrill” when she got the job, but became the party’s most successful boss of modern times. But as Badenoch approaches a year in the job, it’s becoming harder to find people who’ll make that comparison.Whatever Badenoch’s personal strengths and failures, there is a different criticism of how she has gone about the job, with a party veteran suggesting, “there is just no pace, no nimbleness”.Maybe that should have been staring the party in the face: her original pitch for the job was “Renewal 2030” – a date past the next general election.During many of her interviews Badenoch has said she wants to take her time working out the right moves for the party, developing credible ideas rather than being rushed. You can expect lots of policy to be unveiled in the next few days.But politics moves incredibly fast, and another source agrees pace is a problem, saying: “What she misunderstood is you get one chance to introduce yourself to the public – she lost the chance to generate any traction and she won’t get that back.”Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was only too happy to step into that “vacuum”, gaining strength in the polls and grabbing headlines while the Tories were busy making other plans.Getty ImagesCandidly, it is not unusual to hear Conservatives saying freely in private that Badenoch won’t be in the job for long, she could be “out by Christmas”, or “might not even have to be dragged out” if the party bombs at the polls in a set of mega elections in May.Indeed, when asked the question herself in a conference warm-up interview, she more or less said: Well, ask me then.Refreshingly honest from a leader who isn’t fully in control of her own destiny? Or foolhardy when this is a moment when she ought to be mustering as much authority as she can? The conference gives a shop window to the party and its leader to show what she is made of too.As one senior MP says: “This conference is about her, and making it clear she has a direction and a sense of where she is going, and it is hers and she is going to l …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
