Kemi Badenoch faced a fork in the road. She needed to embrace one of her previous rivals and use either James Cleverly or Robert Jenrick to prop up her leadership of the Conservative Party. Luckily, she chose correctly, welcoming back Cleverly, the sensible centrist, while keeping Jenrick, the Reform-lite offering, at arm’s length.
This decision makes use of the authentic person-of-the-people communication skills of Cleverly, pitching them against the authentic person-of-the-people ditto of Angela Rayner. By installing Cleverly as the deputy prime minister’s shadow, Badenoch hints that he is her deputy without actually giving him that title.
