Kemi elected leader of the Tory party

[cariadlet]

Let's hope she really holds Labour to account about women's rights and the dangers of gender ideology.

Yes. At this point the main thing I'm after is a strong opposition. I want continual questioning about where the promised growth is and what the vast amount of money raised from new taxation is being spent on.

She's being described as high risk, high reward which I think is about right.

Brilliant news. So pleased.

This is good news. Irrespective of whether you agree with (all of her) politics, she has the intelligence and analysis skills to really hold labour to account. I hope she can do it.

Personally, I think her economic believes are terrible. But she has been so strong in fighting gender ideology, especially in schools.

"beliefs"

Delighted to see her as a woman lead and the first black woman at that

She'll be strong on holding Labour to account which is great

Never thought I’d see the day where a black woman was leader of the Conservatives. That’s a fantastic achievement.

I hope she sticks to her principles and takes Starmer to account every chance she get and puts clear water between the two main parties

My initial thoughts are that she's clearly strong on hitting the weaknesses and dangers of gender ideology right in the solar plexus, and I think that she will be able to take aim at Starmer on this over and over again. There are Labour front bench MPs like Lisa Nandy who are steeped in gender woo - and Kemi Badenoch will have easy wins on Starmer's failure to properly contain their ideological incontinence.

Badenoch's socio-economic policies are very risky. Some would say extreme. I'm not sure if this will be apparent straight away to the wider population, given that all KB has to do for the foreseeable is critique Reeves's budget, itself a budget not without risk given that it appears to be dependent for success on an unpublished Budget #2 in the future.

The biggest risk of all (IMO) is that opposition to gender woo becomes associated by those arseholes at the BBC and Guardian with 'Badenomics' or 'Kemiella de Ville'. OTOH, she such a clear-headed and intelligent orator that she ought to be able to cut through the crap in a way that Jenrick would not.

Such a significant win on many levels. So pleased!

a budget not without risk given that it appears to be dependent for success on an unpublished Budget #2 in the future.

I read about this earlier today and let's say my eyebrows raised considerably. It will be interesting when Reeves does her next tax raid Budget.

She hasn't got any policies yet. Yes, she tends to be very ideological on economics, but more importantly I think she will end up delivering clearly articulated policies which are designed to be effective and which re-establish Conservative values.

Wow so those racist misogynist Tories in th shires voted for a black women?!
Who's have think it??

She's been very impressive on the gender identity agenda, but less impressive on other areas and an unknown quantity in mnay areas.

She answered my question about SEND on the webchat on here on Monday, and it was very non specific and not that impressive.
All the 'we must listen and change' stuff just makes me want to eye roll too.
It's just more political Blah to me.

I think there's a danger she may just seem like another Blah Tory, and what we really need is something quite radically different and refreshing if they have any hope of being a challenge to Reform.

She's shown she can be pragmatic. Her comments on the ECHR were sensible. Let's see.

Me too

She answered my question about SEND on the webchat on here on Monday, and it was very non specific and not that impressive.
All the 'we must listen and change' stuff just makes me want to eye roll too.
It's just more political Blah to me.

Fully agree re her SEND answer not being good enough. I posted about it on a different thread... (and I'm glad I remembered your/the poster name correctly!):

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/5196161-mumsnet-zoomchat-with-kemi-badenoch?reply=139467443&utmcampaign=reply&utmmedium=share

Regardless of this answer, I'm glad she won.

This comment from palebluemoonlight sums the situation up for me:

This is good news. Irrespective of whether you agree with (all of her) politics, she has the intelligence and analysis skills to really hold labour to account. I hope she can do it.

Plus I've now saved myself an hour. If Jenrick had won, I was going to listen to his MN webchat. I had read the comments on both before listening to Kemi's. Jenrick seemed weasily and blah from the comments in the thread but equally, that could just be my bias showing.... as I find his (press reported) comments lacking in any substance. However, I find Kemi's press reported comments also lack any depth, so I was keen to hear from him directly if he had won. Unless he gets a significant position in the shadow cabinet, I'm more than happy to just write him off as a flash in the pan who wants to go hard on immigration and enjoys interesting approaches to planning decisions.

Edited for typo

I don't think she'll come across as a just another Blah Tory, at all......She new, fresh, different, She'll certainly grab attention and she has the charisma to hold it as well. She'll articulate, very clearly, her values. She'll make mistakes, of course, everyone does........but I even think she could bring new people to vote Conservative. She's definitely not 'Tory Boy' - like Robert Jenrick.

How can she hold Labour to account on women's rights when she has explicitly stated that our current maternity pay is excessive?

Yep. She's definitely not blah or old boy network

I really dislike what I know of her policies affecting women (apart from the scepticism on gender identity politics in a ‘even a stopped clock’ type of way), but doubt Robert Jenrick would have been much different. Congratulations to KB and the Tories for being the first black female leader of any mainstream political party. I hope she builds a strong opposition which is essential in a democracy. And I hope she takes on Reform who are awful, but definitely hope not by turning the Tories into Reform.

Quite.

Go for it Kemi! We need a strong opposition.

I hope you're right!

I just found all the listening/ changing stuff on the webchat Blah.

I loved her sharpness on the brief on the gender stuff and her braveness, I hope we see that Kemi. Really sharp on policy and brave.

I don't want hopey/ changey aspiring talk I want policy.
We'll see . It's going to be intersting.

Well, I wish her luck, she's much better than Jenrick would have been. Her main job is to hold Labour to account and she's more than capable of doing that.

I think she’ll be great in holding Labour to account on the gender stuff, this is the best outcome.

I think the maternity pay issue has been misrepresented as she was talking about regulation on businesses being too much, and not specifically maternity pay (that was a question). I guess she thinks that companies should offer maternity pay conditions as part of the overall benefit package they provide (incl. pension, health insurance etc) rather than the state mandating a minimum amount. So I didn’t read her response as an attack on maternity pay, just the usual conservative view that the state should do less and individuals/ business have more freedom. I’m not neccessarily agreeing with this, I don’t how it is in other countries e.g. France, Germany on the balance of where maternity pay is set between state and business.

I guess she thinks that companies should offer maternity pay conditions as part of the overall benefit package they provide (incl. pension, health insurance etc) rather than the state mandating a minimum amount. So I didn’t read her response as an attack on maternity pay

If she meant what you've said, that maternity pay shouldn't be dictated by gov, that is absolutely an attack on maternity pay because it strongly implies a desire to get rid of SMP.