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Original poster

AIBU to think Kemi’s speech showed real leadership potential?

155 replies

Whysnothingsimple · 13/05/2026 15:38

Just listening to her speech. She’s badass, seems to know and understand the mood of the country - she could very well be this country’s saviour from extremism and bankruptcy

OP posts:
curliegirlie · 13/05/2026 18:36

Admittedly I haven’t heard the speech, but speeches by Kemi being seen as demonstrating leadership potential does not compute. In general she comes across like a self important member of a student debating society.

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:34

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:31

Fair enough you want to give her the benefit of the doubt. I feel differently.

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Well, I'll change my view if you can demonstrate that I'm wrong and she had hypocritically defended these mass prayer events in the past and it's not simply based on your hunch and a general dislike for the women.

FlyingApple · 13/05/2026 18:33

PinoirNot · 13/05/2026 18:21

Why would you wish that on someone you claim to like?

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Because I like reform too.

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:31

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:21

I'm sure she did, but which journalist would have posed that question to her when in those roles?

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Fair enough you want to give her the benefit of the doubt. I feel differently.

unistress · 13/05/2026 18:30

PropertyD · 13/05/2026 18:25

So what exactly didn’t you like about what she said? Labour are an embarrassing mess. Starmer is finished and whether he limps on until the next GE is for others to decide. Burnham came what 4th in a 5 horse leadership race the last time he ran.

The funniest thing today and the state of the Labour Party is no joke was when Black Rod knocked on the door and some wag said ‘not now Andy’.

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Exactly, but none of that is down to her, is it? If she manages to capitalise on it fine, but it won't make her a great leader, it'll make her lucky. The thing is, if the Tory results last week are anything to go by, she won't benefiting from it much in any case.

TON618 · 13/05/2026 18:29

I've never voted for her party in my life but she livens up Parliament no end. She was on fire. I do think she's growing into her role as a leader.

Kirbert2 · 13/05/2026 18:27

LoisGriffinskitchen · 13/05/2026 17:54

Went off her when she said you gotta free car for having ADHD. This is not true, she knows it’s not true but said it anyway to rile up the more stupid who believe everything they read told. So no….she can do one, along with anyone else who says such things.

Yep.

Not a fan of her at all.

PropertyD · 13/05/2026 18:25

xILikeJamx · 13/05/2026 16:14

She is hopeless and the Tories will continue into obscurity with people of her calibre in charge. The fact that there's anything positive to say about her just outlines how disastrous the people who came before her were

So what exactly didn’t you like about what she said? Labour are an embarrassing mess. Starmer is finished and whether he limps on until the next GE is for others to decide. Burnham came what 4th in a 5 horse leadership race the last time he ran.

The funniest thing today and the state of the Labour Party is no joke was when Black Rod knocked on the door and some wag said ‘not now Andy’.

PinoirNot · 13/05/2026 18:21

FlyingApple · 13/05/2026 16:32

I really like Kemi, wish she'd join reform.

Why would you wish that on someone you claim to like?

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:21

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:19

She didn't notice what was happening in the world just outside her office?

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I'm sure she did, but which journalist would have posed that question to her when in those roles?

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:19

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:13

Probably didn't come up as housing minister or trade secretary.

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She didn't notice what was happening in the world just outside her office?

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:18

WildEnergySupplier · 13/05/2026 18:17

She is as far right as they come - look at her record on minorities and transphobia

I like her most for her support of women's rights when gender bollocks was at its height.

WildEnergySupplier · 13/05/2026 18:17

She is as far right as they come - look at her record on minorities and transphobia

unistress · 13/05/2026 18:15

She's terrible - horribly right-wing, a proven liar and arrogantly tries to sweep over her involvement in the last disastrous government even though she was a minister. She tries to come across as cocksure every week in PMQs but messes it up most of the time. To be honest though, if you can't land a few punches on a PM in Starmer's situation this week there is something very wrong so I wouldn't say her managing to do that means that she is a natural leader/amazing/whatever else a handful of people may think. And I thought Starmer's rejoinder about her being a ray of sunshine was really funny and landed well too. I also thought he was spot on saying she, like him, had a pretty rubbish election but the difference was she hadn't noticed. She lucky the idiot plotters in Labour have taken the spotlight off that but that doesn't make her a great leader either. Starmer also said she isn't even the opposition anymore, which could be scarily true soon. So, no, I don't think she's great or that she wipes the floor him every week.

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:13

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:12

But why did she suddenly decide she was against it, when it has been happening for a few years? And there is similar for other religions, I think? She is just trying to jump onto Farage's populist bandwagon.

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Probably didn't come up as housing minister or trade secretary.

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:12

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:03

I don't think that her comments meet the threshold of othering. I think mass prayer in a civic space isn't cricket and, as an atheist, I would say that should be applied equally across the religions. Which was Badenoch's approach.

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But why did she suddenly decide she was against it, when it has been happening for a few years? And there is similar for other religions, I think? She is just trying to jump onto Farage's populist bandwagon.

TemperanceWest · 13/05/2026 18:10

I thought she was quite funny, but overdid it. She wasn't exactly stateswoman like. More like newbie stand-up routine. And too strident.

Streeting's face though. He looked as though he wanted to do what he once threatened to do to Jan Moir.

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 18:03

nomas · 13/05/2026 17:50

It does bother a lot of people who don’t support othering and marginalising of Muslims though.

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I don't think that her comments meet the threshold of othering. I think mass prayer in a civic space isn't cricket and, as an atheist, I would say that should be applied equally across the religions. Which was Badenoch's approach.

SapphOhNo · 13/05/2026 17:56

I think she just seems decent compared to what's left of the Tory Party, low bar that it is...

noworklifebalance · 13/05/2026 17:55

MajorLanceYouDontWantMeNoMoreNsoul · 13/05/2026 17:36

And the past fourteen years of Tory cuts haven't contributed to the problems now facing the UK.
Defence
Police
Health
Mental health
Housing( bulk of UC goes to private landlords )
Immigrant hotels (Tory mates contracts)
Etc.

Tbf, Labour have done plenty off their own back to grind the country down and at some point (say after 2 years in government), they need to start owning it.

LoisGriffinskitchen · 13/05/2026 17:54

Went off her when she said you gotta free car for having ADHD. This is not true, she knows it’s not true but said it anyway to rile up the more stupid who believe everything they read told. So no….she can do one, along with anyone else who says such things.

Thatsenoughnowmr · 13/05/2026 17:51

Whysnothingsimple · 13/05/2026 15:38

Just listening to her speech. She’s badass, seems to know and understand the mood of the country - she could very well be this country’s saviour from extremism and bankruptcy

I agree actually..
But what's to stop the conservatives getting rid of her,if she was pm .
It's not her i don't trust ,I think she's great .it's the rest of the party

nomas · 13/05/2026 17:50

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 17:49

No, that doesn't bother me. Not compared with the 'economist' 'chess master' chancellor or the 'Red Cross ambassador' 'ministry of justice employee' 'council tax payer' tit-whisperer.

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It does bother a lot of people who don’t support othering and marginalising of Muslims though.

Upstartled · 13/05/2026 17:49

nomas · 13/05/2026 17:45

This is the woman who lied about being offered a scholarship by Stanford University and also picks on minorities to cosy up to right wingers. Picking on Muslims for celebrating Eid at Trafalgar Square was a new low.

No, that doesn't bother me. Not compared with the 'economist' 'chess master' chancellor or the 'Red Cross ambassador' 'ministry of justice employee' 'council tax payer' tit-whisperer.

Walkyrie · 13/05/2026 17:49

Mischance · 13/05/2026 16:31

The country does not need saving from extremism and bankruptcy.

It needs a sense of community, of working together, of caring for those who are disadvantaged, of pulling together, and to get away from the cult of individualism and relentless competition that has split communities and fermented discontent. This is where extremism is fostered. This is wherevyears of Tory rule have got us. Starmer cannot turn this round on a whim. It is work in progress.

Yes but that won’t look like ‘everyone doing their bit’, it will look like the hoardes of unemployed people getting benefit raises ‘because they’re vulnerable’ while yet again the squeezed middle are on the hook for looking after everyone else via higher taxation and expectation they will put up and shut up

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