Kemi Badenoch's 'policy void'

"Sorry, for Kemi Badenoch, does not seem to be the hardest word," said The Times. Last week, the Tory leader used her first major speech in opposition to deliver a characteristically punchy "mea culpa" for her party's failures in government. The Conservatives were wrong to leave the EU without a plan for growth, Badenoch said, and to make empty promises on immigration and net zero.

"The candour is refreshing," said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. It usually takes years for losing parties to "face up to why they actually lost". But it's also a sign that Badenoch is "rattled". And no wonder: the Tories are now in third place in several polls, behind Labour and Reform UK. Admitting past mistakes will allow her to go on the attack against Nigel Farage, who is "promising the earth" on immigration. But it also raises the question: what exactly will her party be selling, "if not the same old magic beans"?

"The answer is… hard to discern," said Rachel Cunliffe in The New Statesman. You'll notice Badenoch didn't apologise for her own record in government – she seems physically incapable of admitting personal blame. She talked only of "valiant" personal successes, such as when she repealed several EU laws as business secretary. And while she gave a long list of "what was wrong with the country: low productivity, high taxes... broken public services" – Badenoch offered nothing "in the way of solutions". She has vowed not to set out detailed policies until 2027, so that the party can take the time to "reflect". In other words: she "still has no ideas".

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"Time is not a luxury Badenoch has," said Sam Lister in the Daily Express. While the Conservatives waste years taking the party back to "first principles", Reform is out there "filling the vacuum". Right now, Farage's party "has by far the clearest policy positions on things vast numbers of voters care about", said James Frayne in The Daily Telegraph: cutting migration, getting tough on crime, taking on "woke". If Badenoch carries on with a policy void for much longer, her party will go "from being a disappointment to an irrelevance", and Reform will "effectively replace the Conservatives as the official opposition".