https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/h-lead-badenoch-casts-hard-right-shadow-over-politics

HARD-RIGHT shadows lengthened over British politics with the election of culture warrior Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader at the weekend.

Ms Badenoch beat rival Robert Jenrick by 53,806 votes to 41,388 from the shrivelled Conservative membership, less than 73 per cent of whom bothered to vote.

The former business secretary becomes the first black woman to lead a major political party in Britain, a fact she does not make much of.

She inherits the Tory leadership from Rishi Sunak following a Tory election defeat of historic dimensions. Nevertheless, the ineptitude of the Labour government has encouraged hopes in the party of a swift return to office.

The Conservatives are now neck-and-neck with Labour in most polls, with the Farageist Reform party also surging, meaning the two hard-right parties are laying claim to nearly half the electorate between them: quite an indictment of the Starmer administration.

Ms Badenoch is known as an abrasive operator who puts speaking her mind, whatever may be in it, before winning friends.

During the leadership race she called for the jailing of 10 per cent of civil servants, queried the value of maternity pay, dismissed autism as a health issue and suggested migrants should be vetted over their attitude to Israel.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/h-lead-badenoch-casts-hard-right-shadow-over-politics