Badenoch for PM?

Agree with much of the above- I admire her stance on women's rights but the rest of her politics are much too far to the right for my liking.

I love her straight talking manner - I imagine she'd be a fun pub companion (as long as you avoided any politics chat!)

@ThePenguinIsDrunk

Agreed

I wouldn't vote for her on the basis of her voting record.

She voted against:

• raising taxes on banks
• laws to improve equality and human rights
• paying higher benefits to those unable to work through disability
• measures to prevent climate change.

She voted for

• restricting access to legal aid.

Nothing in her voting record at all to suggest that she cares about improving the lives of anyone in this country - least of all women and children.

Hell no!

Also this
@artant
The last thing the country needs is an even more right wing government. The way to achieve equality is not to make things shit for everyone

No - I would not want another woman as PM - they cannot run the country just on women's issues/women's rights.

A PM must take account of all sides on the issues and I can think of very few of any stripe who have managed to do that.

I can't think of anyone worse

A culture warrior is someone who chooses to waste time endlessly making speeches about their “war on the woke” rather than actually dealing with the issues facing the country. Someone who seeks to divide rather than to repair.

It is incredibly patronising of you to say because I disagree with both Kemi’s politics and her rhetorical style that I’m somehow upset by “strong” women. I just don’t think of her as one.

What is a 'cultural warrior' ?

Her manner is forthright and direct - exactly what I like to see and rare in a politician of any stripe.

Lots of people get upset by strong women and it appears that you are one of them. Never mind.

They don't need to rule change, the parliamentary party can still sew it up between themselves if they want to. If only one candidate has sufficient MP support, the membership never get near it. The bigger issue, I think, is that what survives the next GE is mostly not going to be from the more moderate wing.

It's a no from me, she's not great on disability;

https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/ministerial-duo-dismiss-concerns-over-social-care-funding-crisis/

There isn't a big choice of moderate , sane , honest tory leadership candidates it is true. Because Johnson, Cummings et al drove them out of the Conservative Party.

Presumably there will be another struggle post election. If its up to the membership another right wing candidate will surely prevail. Perhaps Farage , Lee Anderson or Badenoch herself. Will conference change the rules though, so the rump parliamentary party can find someone halfway sensible?

Yep, and also the Red Wall cohort will mostly be gone after the next GE too. So the next leader is not going to be a level up type.

A lot of the very right wing big names are the ones sitting on 20k majorities. I can't think of anyone the Tories have at present who's moderate and is definitely keeping their seat.

I am hugely impressed by her courage and clarity and scientific approach. She is a hard worker and doesn't overly care what people think of her personally. I also think she is highly intelligent. Given the alternatives, even her being very right wing would be bearable if she was open to being convinced by argument. But I have seen her say on a couple of occasions that she would not entertain ideas because they are socialist in origin. That is a very big negative for me. Everyone should be able to entertain the possibility that they are wrong, or that opponents have valid points.
And also, as others have posted, she'd be mad to go for it now.

Incidentally, I don't think Labour will win convincingly. I think a low turnout and a hung parliament is the most likely outcome.

I can see her being their next leader, but she'd be mad to stage a leadership challenge now. The next general election is lost, they need to rebuild and I can imagine her being the woman to do it.

No sensible woman would want to be PM now and blamed for what is likely to be a considerable defeat.

I dunno actually, it depends on what their future plans are. The next GE could be almost a year away if we go as late as possible. Obviously the political career of whoever takes the Tories into the next GE is going to be over at that point, but you can still do lots of well paid things as an ex PM.

That said, I get the impression Kemi has her eye on becoming Leader of the Opposition.

Aside from the fact that she’s a cultural warrior who seems to revel in stoking division - did you see her in the leadership debates? Her manner is terrible - very patronising and rude. I cannot imagine her connecting with the wider public well.

Sadly, Boris pushed out all the moderate voices after the Brexit deal. Big loss to the Tories as well as the country.

No. She’s good on this issue, much better than most.

But she’s a political weasel.

She seems to be determined, intelligent and on gender issues sensible. Very little idea of her views on anything else. No sensible woman would want to be PM now and blamed for what is likely to be a considerable defeat.

The last thing the tories need is a very right wing leader, so if her views really are very right wing they need to find someone else - there isnt a great list to choose from.

Along with the stuff about hacking Harriet Harman's website we've now got this:

https://twitter.com/g_lanktree/status/1752947378191991143

This.

In practice, the window is running out for the Tories to be able to do another desperate change of leader prior to the GE, and I don't think Kemi has the party support anyway. They're entirely fucked at the next GE regardless of who's at the helm anyway.

The last thing the country needs is an even more right wing government. The way to achieve equality is not to make things shit for everyone.

I agree with this too. She's a horror.

Another leadership election would be suicide for the Conservative Party.

I agree as well. And I won't vote on a single issue. I am against Tory policies in so many other ways, and she in particular proposed some really harmful (to everyone) things during her leadership campaign. I don't think she would be a good thing for women - or anyone - overall, despite her views on this topic. I am also not convinced that the Tories would safeguard women's rights whoever was in charge; I think they will do whatever is politically convenient for them, which might now involve saying the right things on this but not necessarily following through. And in the meantime, so many other harmful policies will be followed through.