Centrist ideas are no longer wanted in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said, arguing that one nation-type Tories or others who have qualms about her rightward direction for the party “need to get out of the way”.
Making a speech in Westminster intended to set out her vision for the party after a spate of recent defections to Reform UK, the Conservative leader hit out at what she called the “tantrum” of Robert Jenrick and others.
She explicitly rejected the approach of Andy Street, the former West Midlands mayor, and Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, who have launched a new group within the party for what they call “politically homeless” centrist and centre-right voters.
While Badenoch said she welcomed any help that could win her party an election, she said this did not involve any policies that were not based around her right-leaning ideas. “They need to recognise the agenda which I’m setting,” she said, when asked about the efforts by Street and Davidson under their Prosper UK banner.
“I’m the leader of the Conservative party, not anyone else. And it is what I think needs to happen that they need to support. Anybody who is trying to push an agenda that is not what I got [elected on], not the platform I stood on, is not being helpful.”
Badenoch was clear on her direction, setting out a Reform-adjacent policy platform based around cutting immigration, opposition to net zero policies, slashing social security and lower taxes. “My Conservative party has moved to the right every day since I became leader,” she said in an early draft of the speech, a line Tory officials said was removed only for reasons of length.
The Tories “have to be a truly Conservative party”, Badenoch said in her speech, adding she was relaxed if that meant centrists deciding to leave: “I won’t apologise to those walking away because they don’t like the new direction. We only want Conservatives.”
She said: “The people who don’t agree with this direction need to get out of the way … We’re about the future, not the past. We’re not trying to recreate 2006 and it’s not 2016 any more.”
While Badenoch argued that her approach was about finding “a common ground” rather than left-right divides, such an explicit repudiation of the historically strong centrist tradition in conservatism is likely to dismay some in the party. It also could leave her electorally exposed given the Conservatives lost about 60 seats to the Liberal Democrats at the last election, many because more centrist Tory voters abandoned the party.
The Lib Dems’ deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, said: “Her slapdown of Ruth Davidson and Andy Street sent a clear message to moderate, centre-ground Conservative voters across the country: she doesn’t want their support.”
A Prosper UK spokesperson said the group welcomed Badenoch’s focus on economic growth, adding: “But while the party rebuilds itself, as it must, we will be out there meeting the wider group of voters who don’t yet identify with any party and offering ideas and solutions to the matters they care most about – the cost of living, jobs, housing and more. So, whilst she cracks on, we’ll do the same.”
The speech was, however, rapturously received by the audience of MPs and party members, particularly a scathing attack on defectors to Reform, notably Jenrick, her former shadow justice secretary. She said: “To those who are defecting, who don’t actually disagree with our policies, I will say: I’m sorry you didn’t win the leadership contest, sorry you didn’t get into the Lords, but you are not offering a plan to fix this country. This is a tantrum dressed up as politics.”
