Good on Kemi!

[MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack]

I'm no fan of Kemi Badenoch, but I'm even less of a fan of Robert Jenrick, and I'm rather delighted to see that she has sacked him and withdrawn the whip before he could jump to Reform.

She has definitely had the last laugh here. He must be spitting bullets!!

Badenoch & others on this thread, totally trashed Starmer for threatening to ban X over sexualised images on Grok.

X stepped back and will reprogram Grok...

Badenochs approach would have meant these images would have continued.

Starmer showed, when it matters, he can be strong, same over Trump and Greenland.

Sacking someone who has already said he is defecting, isn't strong, she had no choice, as has said herself.

Right. Plus support is even lower now. A recent poll put it at 15%. That is incredibly low. 85% choosing not to back them.

Agree OP, for once. 😁
Kemi certainly had the last laugh. She was excellent yesterday.

A bit like what we have now with Labour then . All sacked for fraud or inappropriate behaviour. All within this short term government tenure .
Angela Rayner
Louise Haigh
Tulip Saddique
Andrew gwynne
Ruckashana Ali

It was a genuine question actually and one you didn’t answer. It may be that GDP is up but it’s not a meaningful statistic in its own right.

Can’t remember what I asked when Sunak had growth but oh my lord, how much longer are we going to hark back to the failures of the Tories as a foil for Labour? Pretty much seems to be Starmer’s PMQ strategy - don’t answer Kemi’s questions, just divert to all the things the Tories got wrong.

Do you think that will still be their election strategy in 2029?

And I thought the left believed that immigration was good for growth and absolutely essential so why would 5m migrants be a problem?

I’m astonished that anyone doesn’t consider this current government as by far the worst in living memory.

I’m 72 and the 2019-2024 government was the worst in my memory. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in this one but it’s far from being the worst.

Surely those defecting to Reform would say they are ‘real’ Conservatives and not the Blair 2.0 party that so many voters became disillusioned with?

Not a Tory (though also NOT happy with current Labour) and don’t agree with Kemi on many things but I had to admire the way she kicked ass! He actually handed her a way to look stronger not weaker - though Reform definitely is a threat.

Exactly

You are referring to the Covid period TBF.

What about the glorious Labour government of the 70s when we had to go to the IMF and the entire country went on strike? Luckily the Conservatives sorted that out once Thatcher got in but Im pretty sure that the Labour government pre 1979 wasn't the best...

Well, in the last year, GDP per capita has grown by 0.9% over 2024/25... happy now?
& as Labour are reducing migration, by some margin, it should continue to grow,

Excusing these 5m on to the left... blimey! thats a reach, since when did let in 5m people inside 3 years?

Migration, like that is utter madness

At no point did i blame the Tories for anything, just pointed out your hypocrisy.

“At no point did I blame the Tories for anything…”

@TeenagersAngst I think a lot would, but they would be voting for Reform anyway. I think a lot of centre-right and apolitical voters are boycotting the Tories because of their incompetence and infighting last time round.

If Kemi can pin that on the gang that has now defected then the line might work with them. That used to be where elections were won.

I’m not referring to the Covid period. I’m referring to the entire period. Covid had nothing to do with Johnson kicking all his decent MPs out and proroguing parliament. It had nothing to do with Truss and Kwarteng’s disastrous seven week debacle or the expensive and pointless attempt to deport a few immigrants to Rwanda. It had nothing to do with two quarters in recession in 2023 or the flood of immigrants post Brexit.

That would be a good strategy for her to use. But if what’s left still looks like the omni-party along with Labour, their vote share will always be split with the Lib Dems.

Its a plan but unfortunately Badenoch was part of that incompetence and infighting.. which as yesterdays debacle shows, is still carrying on.

Jenrick will be going all out to get more defections, he won the parliamentary vote in the leadership contest.

I don't like Badenoch, but I thought she had a very good point when she said in effect that she was glad that Jenrick is now Farage's problem and not hers. When you have a party full of defectors, it's a recipe for trouble, particularly when they have more government experience than the leader of the new party does.

The idea that Jenrick has stated ‘The Conservative Party is over’ is breathtakingly arrogant and awful. I’m not a Tory but even I’m hugely aware of their long, established and esteemed history as a Party.

Hundreds of years of history over because Jenrick claims it? Fuck off

I think she needs to campaign on being tenacious, competent and honest.

She can’t campaign on left-right as she can only be right wing, and will always be beaten by Reform at that game.

(Though I suppose she could campaign as economically right, and point out how economically left Reform has gone to win working class votes. But I’m not sure there are enough economically-right votes available that aren’t already Reform. Reform’s a weird party).

Me too. I liked her since brexit. Whether you voted that way or not, she had a clear view and you knew where she stood - she was honest. She has morals and principals, believes that hard work should pay and I believe she wants to nake the country better. I also like that she is pretty normal, she worked in McDonald's in her teens. She is aspirational and I hope she inspires a wave of young girls to think that they can do the same thing.

Yes she was. Not as visibly as many others though, so she might be able to duck that.

She also benefits from looking different (engineer, young, black, woman) from the type that people associate with those Brexit years, who look like the Reform defectors.

I also think she’s getting much better as a leader.

Yes I like that about her a lot, even though she is further right that me. She did badly when she was first leader but I think she’s improving. And she makes a nice contrast to Starmer who is hard to pin down.

I think she should be less attacky though. That just reminds me she’s a politician. She is far stronger in her “common sense” style.

The immigration issue I agree with.

Proroguing Parliament was something made of nothing. Ridiculous fuss and epitomised how utterly spineless and pathetic the whole of Parliament was, trying to fight back using any weapon against the result of the referendum and undermining the UKs position. They all disgraced themselves. Particularly Keir Starmer. Who has subsequently proven he really is no believer in democracy anyway.

Truss is usually wheeled out as some great disaster. I think Rachel Reeves will turn out to have shafted everyone a lot worse unfortunately. And in any event the polls agree that Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are the most unpopular people who have ever held their respective jobs. So most people judge them to have performed worse than Truss and Kwarteng.

Rwanda...pointless because we never knew if it would work. Because Keir stopped it before it even started, without anything effective to replace it with. He will end up with something similar I expect. Another U turn.

And as I said the majority of that period was covid and the effects of covid subsequently.

This is a master stroke by Kemi and I don’t think it makes Reform stronger, Dorrues, Kwarteng and Jenruck - weak players.

Just to say I still cannot understand why the disastrous ‘Truss’ budget is quoted as such - surely it was the Kwarteng budget 🥴

In what way is Reeves worse?

The economy hasn't tanked, neither have Gilt yields, in fact the opposite, borrowing costs falling, Truss trebled them, forced the BoE to print an extra £65billion on debt and wrecked mine and many others DC pensions.

FTSE All Share at record highs, that includes smaller UK companies, not just those in the FTSE100, with overseas earnings.

Polling 3.5years from a GE is meaningless.