Mixing her metaphors with a brazen self-belief that few in her party possess these days, Kemi Badenoch – in her maiden speech to her first conference as Tory leader – was about as bullish as she could be: “We have a mountain to climb, but we have a song in our hearts, and we are up for the fight.”
In truth, it is all she could do, short of getting up on the platform and telling them all that they may as well all pack up and go home. Or join Reform UK. She cannot be expected to admit that they are about as far away from regaining power as they have ever been, that the public won’t be interested in listening to them for a very long time, that Nigel Farage is running away with the game, and, historically unpopular as Sir Keir Starmer and his party have become, they actually still lead the Tories.
