UK politics: Jenricks ideas mostly my thoughts repackaged, says Badenoch as it happened

October 2, 2025

UK politics: Jenricks ideas mostly my thoughts repackaged, says Badenoch as it happened

Kemi Badenoch has given a punchy interview to Tim Shipman from the Spectator ahead of the Tory conference. Here are the main lines.Badenoch claimed the Conservative party was close to going bust when she took over as leader last year. She said:I basically inherited a distressed asset and my first job was to just make sure we didnt go bust. Most of my first three to six months were spent on that. I just couldnt get out there much. The opportunity cost was perhaps not doing much media.When it was put to her that she should have spent more time over the past year talking about policy, she said she would rather be out raising every single penny, not doing some nice media interviews. Asked why she couldnt do both, she replied:I dont think people realise just how perilous the situation was.She said that she will give two speeches at Tory conference a speech on Sunday setting out the partys plans to leave the European convention on human rights, as well as the traditional end-of-conference speech on Wednesday. That is similar to what Theresa May did in 2016, when she give a speech on the Sunday about her Brexit policy. (That was the speech where she in effect committed the UK to leaving the single market and the customs unions despite the fact she had not cleared that with cabinet.) Badenoch is going to present the ECHR plans to her shadow cabinet tomorrow.She claimed that most of Robert Jenricks ideas were hers. Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, was Badenochs main rival in the leadership contest last year. It is widely assumed that he is preparing to stand in another contest before the election, and he has a very active social media comment, where he is happy to comment on topics outside his brief. Asked if she was happy about Jenrick offering his views so readily, Badenoch said: Yes. But most of them are my thoughts repackaged. She also said:I dont mind that he says what he thinks. The advantage of having a leadership contest is that youve kind of already said what you think. Repeating it, which is what Rob tends to do, is not new information.Badenoch is not being fair to her rival. In last years contest the most significant policy difference between Badenoch and Jenrick was Jenrick giving a firm commitment to withdraw from the ECHR, while Badenoch would not make that commitment. She did not rule out withdrawal, but said it was not a silver bullet. In Manchester next week at their conference the Tories will be adopting the Jenrick policy.Badenoch said she wanted her shadow ministers to speak out at conference, even if that meant going beyond the official party line. She said:

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