There have been times in living memory that Conservative leaders have sounded almost sensible on the surface – and times where they have sounded animal crackers, yet were still adored by their party. This is not either of those times. Kemi Badenoch left the crowd unmoved when she addressed her conference, even as she threw out the red meat of migrant-baiting she thought they wanted. It’s not so much that they’d all woken up with a renewed sense of humanity; more that they didn’t believe she’d ever be in a position to deliver it. It was, in effect, fake vegan meat. Tories hate that. One senior Conservative apparently called it a “New Orleans funeral”: noisy, energetic, but still a goodbye.
What next for the group with a decent case to make for itself as the most historically successful democratic party in the world? Some are having another squiz at Robert Jenrick, who was a hard “no” at the start of the night – but now it’s the end, and everyone else has left. Others are creating a buzz around Katie Lam, a 34-year-old MP of the 2024 intake, who looks like a Shires Tory while wallpapering her socials with anti-migrant content. Could she be the figurehead to beat back Reform, now outpolling the Conservatives by 20 points? Is there a word for beating your rivals by becoming exactly like them? And, if there isn’t, surely we could borrow one from martial arts?
