It's Not Too Late to Choose Jenrick

Starmergeddon has reminded us that being in opposition is much easier than running the country. While good governance requires making the "tough choices" to which Starmer and Reeves have alluded, opposition consists of identifying the Government's failures and presenting one's party as the common sense replacement. The Conservatives have played to this natural advantage, organising opposition to the Government's plans to de-universalise the Winter Fuel Allowance for over-65s and introduce inheritance tax on agricultural estates. The Tories batted well to defend their target voters, painting the Labour Party as incalculably cruel by comparison. The 'Family Farm Tax', as it was soon monikered, was even more fertile ground politically. Britain's farmers, stewards of our green and pleasant land, were heroes in conflict with a cabal of metropolitan left-wingers who sought to undermine their way of life. While reliable polling of public opinion is not yet available, the farmers have so far won the media war, imprinting their Barbours, Schoffels and idyllic family farms on every major news site.

The Conservatives have fared less well, however, at the despatch box. Given that effective opposition is a protracted speaking gig, it would be useful for the Tories to have a strong orator at its helm. Badenoch lacks this quality. Last month, one of her attempted jibes in PMQs was "he [Starmer] said he wants to smash the gangs, the only thing he has smashed is his reputation." The line is as uninspiring when delivered aloud as it reads in print. Taking substantive policy into consideration, she has not performed much better. The weekly bouts between Starmer and Badenoch have gone in the Labour man's favour. In a video that the Conservatives' YouTube channel has listed as "Kemi Badenoch BATTERS Keir Starmer", Badenoch attempts to challenge the Government's record on immigration, despite Labour's success, relative to the last Government, in securing deportations. Starmer echoed his previous talk of the Tories' "open borders experiment", which saw unprecedented levels of migration. Therein lies the struggle. Immigration is an issue indicting enough for any Conservative MP. It is even worse for Kemi Badenoch, who, in the aftermath of an immigration-fuelled electoral punch from the Right, initially refused to commit to leaving the ECHR, before she realised the location of broader party opinion. 

Perhaps more damning than her Wednesday appearances is her inexplicable talent for saying the wrong thing when interviewed. The lustre of the studio chair draws from Kemi Badenoch the most ridiculous quotes imaginable. Badenoch betrayed her stunnigly alien view of British social class when she stated that she became working-class as a result of her part-time job at McDonald's as a teenager. Though a potentially redeemable comment with the additional context of her living situation, Badenoch's McFarce was an unforced error that only entrenched perceptions of the Tories as removed from ordinary British life. More recently, in what should have been a soft-ball interview for The Spectator, Badenoch revealed that she is, in fact, an unrepentant Yoruba nationalist who views people from northern Nigeria as her "ethnic enemies." That she felt comfortable having the British public know this of her is even more unnerving than the opinion itself. Whether it's a spat with David Tennant or commentary on sandwiches, Kemi Badenoch specialises in controversy without charisma. 

 We do not need to look far to find a suitable replacement. Though defeated by a large margin in the leadershup election, Jenrick has been running an unofficial leadership campaign for the past two months, waiting for the fourth official to flash his number up on the substitution board. In all his communication, he speaks with a fierce independence that is usually wielded by leadership hopefuls. Refiguring conventional understanding of collective responisbility on party policy, he penned a searing criticism of the past quarter-century's foreign policy failures for The Telegraph. On the subject of the grooming gang coverup scandal, he declared, with singular confidence, "I will continue to campaign for whole life sentences". Aware that he lost on account of name recognition, Jenrick has not shied from television and radio appearances. Most crucially, Jenrick understands that Reform are a legitimate electoral force. While Kemi Badenoch mires herself in petty X debates about the legitimacy of Reform's membership ticker, Jenrick refrains from fighting a party who might well be the Tories' coalition partners after the next General Election. 

The four years until 2029 could be four years too many of blunders from Badenoch. It's time for the Tory membership to admit that it's not too late to choose Robert Jenrick.

Pic: PA