Kemi Badenoch after 100 days: A work in progress and her Farage problem
Kemi Badenoch has notched up 100 days as Conservative party leader.
To say she’s celebrating this century would be wrong, though. Marking it, perhaps.
And after a difficult first 100 days, the verdict on Ms Badenoch’s performance could best be described as a work in progress.
When she won the Tory crown on 2 November last year, defeating Robert Jenrick, she said: “It’s time to renew.”
But what’s new just over three months later? Not much, apart from a slump in the opinion polls and Nigel Farage threatening to destroy the Tory Party.
After a very long wait, it was last week that Ms Badenoch unveiled her first policy: a crackdown on immigrants’ right to remain in the UK.
As well as bowing to pressure from critics in her party to announce some policies, it was seen as a response to Reform UK topping a Sky News/YouGov poll for the first time.
On the Sky News Electoral Dysfunction podcast, former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said Ms Badenoch is “running into trouble” and may only have 18 months in the job.
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Back in November, she inherited a party that was demoralised and broke, down to 121 MPs, with many of its leading figures and star performers rejected by the voters.
As well as leading talents like Penny Mordaunt losing their seat, her charismatic leadership rival James Cleverly and other former ministers opted to return to the back benches.
Some struggles at PMQs
At her first prime minister’s questions, buoyed by President Trump’s overnight victory in the US, she had fun recalling all the insults hurled at The Donald by Labour politicians in the past.
She also boldly called on Sir Keir Starmer to resign, quoting an online petition calling for a general election. But Sir Keir gently reminded her there was “a massive petition” on the 4th of July.
Several PMQs later, she still hasn’t landed any major blows on Sir Keir, partly because she has so few MPs behind her and he has a vast army of backbenchers cheering him on.
But critics argue that she still has too much of a scattergun approach with her six questions, moving from one subject to another rather than probing forensically on one issue.
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Tories pledge to tighten immigration
Last Wednesday, for example, she tackled the PM on Chagos, the Roseback oil and gas field, his voice coach, AstraZeneca, GB Energy jobs, energy bills and winter fuel allowances.
Teething problems with the media
There’s also criticism from some of her MPs that she’s virtually invisible in the media. Insiders claim she “hates doing media” and sends shadow cabinet colleagues in her place.
When she does face the media, such as when she made a big set-piece policy speech in January, she upsets many of her Tory colleagues by criticising the party’s record in government.
In that speech, she criticised Theresa May and Boris Johnson for leaving the EU without a plan, Mrs May again for net zero targets without a plan and Mr Johnson and Rishi Sunak for promising to reduce immigration while it rose to record levels.
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On Boxing Day, when Mr Farage claimed Reform UK had overtaken the Tories’ 131,000 members, Ms Badenoch claimed the figures were fake. This weekend, however, he claimed his party had topped 200,000 members.
Nigel Farage is out-performing Badenoch as an opposition leader
It’s also claimed she shuns the so-called “rubber chicken circuit” of constituency dinners and fundraising events. When former Tory donors are pouring money into Reform UK, the Tories need every penny they can raise.
Others criticise her abrasive style. When she gave what was supposed to be a pep-talk to staff at Tory HQ last week, it’s claimed some were left in tears after she told them if they didn’t “shape up” they “shouldn’t be in CCHQ”.
But in an interview later in the week, she was unapologetic about her speech to her party workers. “We need sometimes to have tough words when people aren’t doing well,” she said defiantly.
Robert Jenrick who lost out to Badenoch in the Tory leadership race is also a problem
Another problem for Ms Badenoch is that her defeated leadership rival, Robert Jenrick, is acting as if he’s still campaigning for the top job and gives every impression of seeking to undermine her and eventually succeed her.
He has also annoyed her by repeatedly refusing to rule out a Tory pact with Mr Farage and Reform UK, something she has emphatically rejected. Nevertheless, those calls for a pact or deal are getting louder and louder.
A generous interpretation of Ms Badenoch’s Commons clashes with the prime minister would be that she’s holding her own.
But her problem is that the charismatic, hyper-active, media-savvy, TikTok-loving Mr Farage is spectacularly out-performing her as an opposition leader.
And that, more than anything else, is her biggest problem after 100 days as Tory leader.
Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.
Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.
Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Officers guard one of the crime scenes
Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.
“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.
“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”
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