Kemi Badenoch suggests all six Tory leadership candidates could get jobs in her shadow cabinet
Kemi Badenoch has suggested she will offer all six candidates in the Tory leadership race a job in her shadow cabinet if she is elected leader.
The Tory leadership hopeful, who is competing against Robert Jenrick to become the next head of the Tory party, said she “did not know” if they would like the roles she would give them and that she has not yet made them any offers.
The current shadow housing secretary – who served as business secretary when the Conservatives were in power – dodged questions over whether she wanted to be prime minister, saying her ultimate ambition was to “make the country more Conservative” to deliver “better growth” and a “better life” for everyone.
She told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge: “I don’t think it’s about wanting to be prime minister.
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“I think it’s not an award. It’s not like winning a competition. It’s actually a very serious job that requires a lot of sacrifice.”
Acknowledging the potential downsides of the job, including the toll it could take on her family life, Ms Badenoch said the role of prime minister “changes your life forever. It changes the life of your family. So I’m very, very wary of saying, ‘Well, I want to be prime minister’.”
She added: “I am very well aware of how life could change, for the worse in, in many circumstances. But I also worry even more about the direction of the country and what will happen unless we can turn things around.”
Ms Badenoch is widely seen as the favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader following the party’s worst ever general election result in July.
The race between herself and Mr Jenrick, a former immigration minister, has become increasingly acrimonious after her opponent claimed the party would “die” under her leadership.
It came after Ms Badenoch launched an attack on Mr Jenrick’s “integrity”, suggesting she was a better fit for the top job as she had never been sacked because of a “whiff of impropriety”.
The comments, made to The Telegraph newspaper, appeared to be a dig at Mr Jenrick’s involvement in a planning dispute when he was housing secretary in 2020 – a position he was later sacked from by Boris Johnson.
However, Ms Badenoch was challenged about her own integrity after she admitted that she had hacked the website of Baroness Harman in 2008 and added a picture of former prime minister Boris Johnson.
Robert Jenrick with wife Michal Berkner.
Pic: PA
Ms Badenoch responded by telling Ridge that she acknowledged she had committed a “summary offence” akin to a speeding ticket and that “I do like playing pranks… I have humour”.
The former minister admitted that while it was “very amusing at the time” before she was an MP herself, now that she was in parliament she has seen the “hassle” MPs receive.
Giving an insight into her character, Ms Badenoch said she was no “wallflower” and described herself as “blunt”, “forthright” and “confident”.
She also addressed some of the negative stereotyping she had received, including accusations that she was “aggressive” as well as “lazy”.
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Jenrick promises ‘clean’ campaign
But she said wanted to avoid making accusations of racism and misogyny because she wanted to “believe the best in everybody”.
Looking ahead to this week’s budget, where the state of the country’s public services will dominate the conversation, Ms Badenoch said she did not believe the UK was “earning enough for the public services that the country wants”.
“Right now, we’re paying more on debt interest than we’re spending on defence,” she said.
“We’re not earning enough in order to cover our costs, and we need to rewire the state and the system in order to deliver what people want.”
Regarding the funding of the NHS, she said “everything should be on the table for discussion”.
She also hit out at some recent policies floated by the Labour government, including a ban on smoking in pub gardens and plans for a football regulator – with the previous Tory government kickstarting plans for the latter.
Read more:
Badenoch hits back at Tory MP
Jenrick’s switch from centre to right
“I think that the state does infantilise a lot of things,” she said.
“Do we really need to ban smoking in pub gardens? Do we really need a football regulator?
“These things are micro, on their own – but the cumulative impact of everything that the state is doing, I think is too much.
“A lot of these things are not public services. We keep creating more bureaucracy, more regulation. And yet the public services are not improving.”
She continued: “I think that’s one of the things that we as a party got wrong – we, the Conservatives, follow this model.
“It’s what I call the Blairite sort of third way model. And maybe it worked in 1997 – but it does not work now.”
The party membership vote will close at 5pm on Thursday 31 October and the winner will be announced on Saturday 2 November.
A group of US Senate Democrats known for supporting the crypto industry have said they would oppose a Republican-led stablecoin bill if it moves forward in its current form.
The move threatens to stall legislation that could establish the first US regulatory framework for stablecoins, according to a May 3 report from Politico.
Per the report, nine Senate Democrats said in a joint statement that the bill “still has numerous issues that must be addressed.” They warned they would not support a procedural vote to advance the legislation unless changes are made.
Among the signatories were Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Andy Kim — all of whom had previously backed the bill when it passed through the Senate Banking Committee in March.
The bill, introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty, is formally known as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.
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The Senate is expected to begin floor consideration of the bill in the coming days, with the first vote potentially taking place next week.
The bill has been championed by the crypto industry as a landmark step toward regulatory clarity. However, the Democrats’ about-face reflects growing unease within the party.
Although revisions were made to the bill after its committee approval to address Democratic concerns, the lawmakers said the changes fell short. They called for stronger safeguards related to Anti-Money Laundering, national security, foreign issuers, and accountability measures for noncompliant actors.
The statement was also signed by Senators Raphael Warnock, Catherine Cortez Masto, Ben Ray Luján, John Hickenlooper and Adam Schiff.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Angela Alsobrooks were absent from the list, who co-sponsored the bill alongside Hagerty.
Despite their objections, the Democratic senators emphasized their commitment to shaping responsible crypto regulation. They reportedly said they “are eager to continue working with our colleagues to address these issues.”
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Crypto needs a stablecoin bill
On April 27, Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, criticized the US Federal Reserve for quietly maintaining a key anti-crypto policy that favors big-bank-issued stablecoins, despite relaxing crypto partnership rules for banks.
Long explained that while the Fed recently rescinded four prior crypto guidelines, a Jan. 27, 2023, statement was left intact in coordination with the Biden administration.
The guidance, according to Long, blocks banks from engaging directly with crypto assets and prohibits them from issuing stablecoins on permissionless blockchains.
However, Long noted that once a federal stablecoin bill becomes law, it could override the Fed’s stance. “Congress should hurry up,” she urged.
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Bitcoiners and United States government officials have criticized Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’s decision to veto a bill that would have allowed the state to hold Bitcoin as part of its official reserves.
“This will age poorly,” Casa co-founder and cypherpunk Jameson Lopp said in a May 3 X post. Bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano said, “Imagine the ignorance of a politician to believe they can make investment decisions.”
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“If she can’t outperform Bitcoin, she must buy it,” Pompliano said. Crypto lawyer Andrew Gordon said, “We need more elected officials who understand that Bitcoin and crypto are the future.”
Wendy Rogers, who co-sponsored the bill with State Representative Jeff Weninger, also voiced her disappointment.
“Politicians don’t understand that Bitcoin doesn’t need Arizona. Arizona needs Bitcoin,” Rogers said.
On May 2, Hobbs vetoed the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act, which would have permitted Arizona to invest seized funds into Bitcoin and create a reserve managed by state officials. “Today, I vetoed Senate Bill 1025. The Arizona State Retirement System is one of the strongest in the nation because it makes sound and informed investments,” Hobbs said.
Rogers said she would refile the bill during her next session. Rogers also pointed out that Arizona’s state retirement system already holds stocks of Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR).
“Which is basically a leveraged Bitcoin ETF. Arizona’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve bill will be back. HODL,” Rogers said. The stock price of Strategy rose 32% in April, the most significant monthly gain since November 2024.
Related: US gov’t actions give clue about upcoming crypto regulation
However, well-known crypto skeptic Peter Schiff sided with Hobbs. “The government should not be making decisions to use public funds to speculate in cryptocurrencies,” Schiff said.
Arizona would have become the first US state to establish a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve if it had passed.
Arizona joins several other US states where similar efforts have failed. Similar proposals in Oklahoma, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming have stalled or been withdrawn recently.
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