Badenoch sets out her vision to redefine Tory party – but few are listening

Kemi Badenoch makes her leader’s speech at the Conservative party conference in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

When Kemi Badenoch was knocking on doors in her Essex constituency in the run-up to the last election, she was confronted by a former Tory voter who told her: “I don’t know what the blue rosette you’re wearing means any more.”

While she went on to win North West Essex, a new redrawn seat, Badenoch’s majority was slashed by almost 25,000 from her win in Saffron Walden and the Conservative party as a whole suffered its worst defeat in parliamentary history.