Kemi Badenoch - pros and cons

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I was enjoying reading the thread about KB but it filled up. Quite a few calling her vile and her views abhorrent, but without much further explanation. For example, I’ve heard about her autism views however one poster said they were misrepresented. In what way? For those more politically tuned-in than me, what specifically do you like or dislike about her?

She is a populist. So will say anything that resonate with the Daily Mail,or GB news gullible followers that resonates with their small world views

Pro: paltry threat to Labour who must be laughing up their sleeves it wasn’t Cleverly (who is keeping himself clean for the next go-round).

Well, the DT has reported that a Labour MP has called her “white supremacy in blackface” which strikes me as a disgustingly divisive things for anyone to say, let alone an MP.

Dawn Butler wrote and then deleted a post describing her win as a “victory for racism”.

Poor old Labour with its endless succession of white male leaders and cabinet ministers. David Lammy (the chump) is unassailable.

Pros:
First black woman to lead a UK party.
More fury and fireworks in the continuing saga of Tory self destruction. Who doesn't love a bit of drama, right?

I am very pro her leadership. I believe it will be a disaster for the Tories. Her mask is slipping and I look forward to more divisive comments.

I like that she’s blunt and direct. I think we have spent a very long time being “managed”, politics has become very much about not upsetting the electorate and being spoken to like you are a toddler.

Very few politicians seem to have the confidence to just say what they think. I do think thats refreshing. I don’t have to agree with her to appreciate that she seems to be just frank really. Thats a change right there.

I disagree about the populist thing, Jenrick was talking about leaving the ECHR and she declined to support that on the basis that she doesn’t know if thats needed or not. Also just because it looks iffy to someone else doesn’t mean it’s not a genuinely held belief.

Like what? Genuinely interested.

I think she's only a caretaker leader until they regroup in the same way William Hague was. IDS and Michael Howard too.

Both parties are really lacking in political heavy weights, but the Conservatives in particular, since Boris cleaned it anyone who disagreed with him.

I've no thought one way or the other about KB as I doubt she, or any of the leader contenders, will ever get to be PM. I may eat those words if she is successful at rebuilding the party, but they're is a mountain to climb and they have been especially good at shooting themselves in the foot.

She's female. That's the first reason I knew she'd win. The fact she's black is a cherry on top. And I mean in terms of Tory thinking, NOT how I view her.

In the past few years, when The Tories are in a tricky situation and need a new leader to do unpopular heavy lifting, they vote in a leader who basically won't be in the general election, who has time to run the show and will be discarded, before the white man comes in for the "proper" role. So I wish her well but I would be surprised if she makes it to the next election. She's merely clearing the way for the next white male leader, possibly Boris, possibly someone else. Doesn't matter really, point is that next election, it'll not be her standing for PM, it'll be a pale and stale dude - UNLESS the Tories believe they'll lose.

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.

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's great. For the labour party

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.

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.

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

Has she? When did she do that?

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.