Kemi Badenoch - pros and cons

You think resurrecting Partygate is intelligent? Because it really isn't.

We'll see how she does with the politics but these aren't true

she's a bit of an intellectual lightweight

and will quickly be shown up as not particularly intelligent

I think she’s bloody fantastic.

She’s fantastic!

Or her ability to lead a country

Or even unite her party. Spoiler alert- she won’t.

Or her political acumen.

Her qualifications are no measure of her emotional intelligence.

I for one am looking forward to PMQs! I think it will be really interesting.
I also think she has plenty of time to develop as leader, Labour are not having an easy ride after the election. They've got to get their communications better, hopefully this will improve in time. I also wonder how long it'll be until there is a cabinet reshuffle. While Labour are still finding their feet the spotlight is off the Tories.

She has an engineering degree and Masters plus a law degree. Why would she not be intelligent? Is that comment from a position of completing more than that?

TBF to the party, Badenoch and Jenrick ended up in the final 2 by accident.🙈

I agree that she's a bit of an intellectual lightweight. Her comment today that Partygate was overblown demonstrates this. It also shows that she has learnt nothing from their monumental defeat in the GE.

This is very true.

But then Kemi Badenoch won so.....

I think it's almost impossible to guess ahead of time how these leaders will pan out.

However, there's always an exception to the rule. Being Boris Johnson. How his leadership turned out was almost entirely predictable.

I would love to see anyone on Mumsnet go up against her in a debate. She'd wipe the floor with you. You may disagree with her politics but to call her a lightweight is ludicrous. She's honest, direct and intelligent.

She’s a political lightweight and will quickly be shown up as not particularly intelligent. She’ll trip herself up within a year or so, the signs are already there.

Shes essentially another populist as the first pp said; you’d have thought that the TP would have realised that the key to elections lies in the centre ground, but hey ho, it’ll be interesting to watch her grapple with the reality of where her electorate actually lies.

Thought of another Pro. Robert fucking Jenrick lost.🥳🥳🥳

She would argue with her own toenails in an empty room. 🤷‍♀️. But, some Tories say she’s just a caretaker leader for 18 months. So, irrelevant.

I think Badenoch’s got one thing right and that’s that the colour of a person’s skin should be of as much relevance as the colour of their eyes or hair.

@gestroopd has a point. The Tories have a track record for putting a woman in when times are difficult. They then drop her like a sack of shit and wheel an old Etonian (who has been disassociated with the bad news) in to take the glory when things improve or a good opportunity arises. Liz Truss, Allegra Stratton, Theresa May - all examples of this.

Cons of KB - pretty much her entire voting record but especially on the environment and welfare.

This is ridiculous and not born out by the facts.
First female PM = Tories
First Asian PM = Tories
First black chancellor = Tories
First black party leader = Tories
First black foreign secretary = Tories
First Muslim cabinet minister = Tories
First black foreign secretary = Tories

Meanwhile,
First female chancellor = Labour

Maybe the Conservatives have the right ideas about race? Actions and outcomes are better than talk and theories.

Has she? When did she do that?

Well as she's already exposed Labour lies around VAT on school fees I am optimistic.

I think she’s got an impossible job. Uniting the party to pull back former Tory voters who went to Reform and those who went LibDem/Labour/Green is obviously going to tear her in halves if she attempts it. Add to that the demographic of the Tory party which is constantly losing its support to the grim reaper without replacing them from younger age groups and I don’t see how she can possibly succeed. If she does have miraculous powers, hats off to her.

Some points which in my view are cons of KB:

Her maternity leave views are bad for women - she said them plainly but then said they were misrepresented.

She hacked Harriet Harman's website and admitted it - a potential breach of the Computer Misuse Act, an offence carrying a jail term of up to five years.

She supported Brexit and her political hero is Thatcher.

She doesn't back key climate policies.

She voted:
to lower government funding to local government.
Against landlords paying for costs of building safety works
Against stronger fire safety measures
To restrict the scope of legal aid
Against measures to improve air quality
Against measures to prevent climate change
Against measures to improve regulation of fracking
Against the preservation of environmental protections after withdrawal from the EU
For higher taxes specifically to fund health and social care while moaning about labour plans to raise taxes
Against requiring imported goods to meet domestic standards
For more restrictive regulation of trade union activity
For mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities

Hope that helps.

She's great. For the labour party

I don’t neccessarily agree with her on many topics but I think she will be a strong and effective opposition leader, holding the government to account. That is what is needed in a democracy, so I think she was the right choice. We didn’t have that in the recent years that the Conservatives were in power, Labour under Corbyn for example were really weak opposition and I think that has contributed to the current problems we have.

I completely agree with her on her views on sex and gender and am looking forward to her holding Labour to account to keep the sex based rights for the 51% of the population that some on the left seem to be trying to erase i.e. women.

She'll be good at holding Starmer to account and the reaction has been better than I expected

Lots of diminishing and talking about Cleverly or whoever, she will do well. Labour may well be leaving an open goal as they've plummeted pretty quickly anyway.