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Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch MP leads the pack among Conservative members, according to the latest YouGov polling of the party faithful earlier this week.
There’s a real chance the blunt-speaking, ‘anti-woke’ politician could make it through to the final two candidates, at which point party members will be given the final say.
Also popular among the rank-and-file is fellow right-wing candidate Robert Jenrick, who has pledged to withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights – that shield protecting individual freedoms across our continent, championed by Winston Churchill.
Badenoch has, in fairness, pledged only to review it, and fight its (or rather, our) European Court of Human Rights if it conflicts with being able to deport people.
But while the former pro-European Jenrick comes across as cosplaying a Conservative Nigel Farage, Badenoch has all the hallmarks of a true believer. Hence her recent controversial comments suggesting maternity pay – and the minimum wage – are unfair burdens upon businesses.
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A section of her speech at the Conservative Party conference – the definitive pitch to the members on Wednesday – is worth sharing in full because it is the ideological backbone of those remarks.
“Here is what we are going to do. We are going to rewrite the rules of the game.
“If I become Leader we will immediately begin a once in a generation undertaking. The sort of project not attempted since the days of Keith Joseph in the 1970s. A comprehensive plan to reprogramme the British state. To reboot the British economy.
“A new blueprint for the great machine of our Country. One that goes far beyond our relationship with the EU or the ECHR.
“A plan that considers every aspect of what the state does and why it does it. A plan built on the principles and priorities of our Nation.
“A plan that looks at our international agreements. At the Human Rights Act. The Equality Act at Judicial review and judicial activism. At the Treasury and the Bank of England. At devolution and Quangos. At the Civil Service and the Health Service.
“At how we use power to give power to the British people. We will rewire, reboot, and reprogramme.
“Nothing is more exciting to me.”
I believe her, on that last point.
Badenoch’s pledge to overhaul basically every institution of Britain – including our NHS – is consistent with a sort of smash-and-run libertarianism, one so disastrously started by former PM Liz Truss during her sub-50-day tenure.
But it’s her bonfire of the civil service, devolution and “quangos” – Government-linked agencies – which pricked my ears. Because it sounds a lot like ‘Project 2025’ – the hard-right Heritage Foundation’s plan for a second Donald Trump presidency across the pond, should he win this November. Trump has claimed to disown it, but the manifesto’s many authors include over 100 of his former staffers.
Project 2025 proposes a massive restructuring of the federal Government, by packing ultra-Conservative appointees into the civil service.
The goal would be to create a sizable force of partisan officials, to counter perceived resistance, or supposed left-wing bias, within Government bodies.
Like Badenoch’s mooted bonfire of the quangos, Project 2025 calls for the abolition of several major Government departments and agencies, rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ rights (hello, Equality Act abolition) and the environment, and vastly expanding deportations of undocumented immigrants to unprecedented levels. Again, that’s all basically consistent with Badenoch’s apparent vision.
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Badenoch may not win the Conservative leadership. But she is likely to have a significant role should the party make it back to Government. Until then, she will exert a right-ward pressure on a party that is already being dragged to the fringes by the likes of GB News, The Telegraph and discredited think tanks that still hold significant sway on Britain’s opposition.
Among Badenoch’s backers is the current Chairman of the Tufton Street based ‘Net Zero Watch’ pressure group, who has reportedly been providing undeclared accommodation for her campaign.
The new “blueprint for the great machine of our Country” will tear up great leaps of progress made in the UK over the past century, from human rights to universal health care.
Though Badenoch’s party may only have 121 seats, this July showed how dramatically things can change. The Conservative Party’s lurch towards nationalism and authoritarianism matters.
So be on alert. Because Britain’s own Project 2025 – Project 2029 – is being cooked up, and the fumes are already filling the air.
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Josiah Mortimer also writes the On the Ground column, exclusive to the print edition of Byline Times.
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