In what was a powerful and, at times, moving speech to her party conference – her best so far – Kemi Badenoch declared that the Conservatives are engaged in a “battle for the soul of the nation”.
If so, her party has chosen a generalissimo who is more than happy to march her troops towards the sound of gunfire. It is less than two years since she was elected leader of the demoralised rump bequeathed to her by Rishi Sunak. She was faced with the forbidding task of rebuilding the Conservatives after the debacle of the 2024 general election – and all that so woefully went before it under the Johnson and Truss administrations.
