The Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch

[nw1]

He just hides his nastiness and greed behind a veneer of bumbling idiot

Oh, I don't like him... but I'd far rather have Boris back than some of the alternatives. Yes, we've sunk that low.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Sep 2025 ==

2, As was discussed about the Tory-Reform defector Danny Kruger in Middle England there is probably no such thing as a "safe" Tory seat. If there was a by-election in Devizes tomorrow it is likely the Lib Dems would win it. The same would be true in the Devon seats if the likes of Sir Geoffrey Cox (Torridge and Tavistock), Rebecca Smith (NW Devon) or even Mel Stride (Central Devon) could be persuaded to stand down to get Penny in and Kemi out by the next General Election.

I wonder where, if anywhere, could still be considered Tory heartlands.

If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say rural England away from the East, which for whatever reason seems to be particularly right-wing (i.e. Reform), but not too close to any large towns and cities (which trend more Lib Dem, e.g the rural areas near Oxford).

Probably an area from Dorset stretching up through parts of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire (though these are trending somewhat Lib Dem) and over to Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire and with a south-easterly branch down through North Oxfordshire, Northants, Beds and Bucks.

 

[Harpo]

While Farage is doing his mini-Donald, Jenrick seems to be morphing into our own JD Vance. First his ill-judged comments about integration and now an ‘activist judges’ rant and threats to wind back restrictions on political involvement in appointing judges.

Robert Jenrick attacks 'activist' judges in conference speech

The shadow justice secretary says the Tories would hand ministers a bigger role in appointing judges.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[brad465]

Jenrick has shown another pitfall of FPTP: he can insult Birmingham without consequence, as hardly anywhere in Birmingham is electorally important for the Tories. This also seeks to shore up support among groups who could vote Tory in other parts of the country, a classic case of divide and rule. We always have more in common with whoever is being s*** on than the person doing the s****ing on them.

 

[cb a1]

Four pillars of democracy.
Independence of the:

• Legislature
• Executive
• Judiciary
• Media

We've been losing the independence of the media for decades as oligarchs slowly take over.
The legislature is increasingly being eviscerated and marginalised (particularly so in the USA).
Politicians in the UK are now looking at how the USA are taking / have taken away the independence of the Judiciary so that ...
All that's left is the Executive and therein lies dictatorship.

 

[KevinBrum12]

Jenrick has shown another pitfall of FPTP: he can insult Birmingham without consequence, as hardly anywhere in Birmingham is electorally important for the Tories. This also seeks to shore up support among groups who could vote Tory in other parts of the country, a classic case of divide and rule. We always have more in common with whoever is being s*** on than the person doing the s****ing on them.

Jenrick made his comments as the guest speaker at a dinner hosted by the Aldridge/Brownhills Conservative Association. Aldridge/Brownhills is just over the border with Birmingham in Walsall, with Walsall Council being run by the Tories. Lets just say the Walsall Tory group is not a happy place at the moment...

Nine Walsall Councillors Blocked from standing - Birmingham Mail
Nine councillors in Walsall have been told they cannot stand as candidates in the local elections next year.

The Aldridge Brownhills Conservative Association has deselected Councillor Gaz Ali, Sarah Cooper, Nick Gandham, Amo Hussain, Amanda Parkes, Waheed Rasab, Suky Samra, Keith Sears and Vera Waters.

Jn the past, sitting councillors have been automatically accepted at this point of the selection process, and only those who have been inactive or with poor behaviour have been rejected.

The councillors, who have been described as committed and experienced, said they were not given any reasons for their refusal.

Jenrick is clearly doing the rounds on a leadership campaign, ready to pounce should the requisite number of his colleagues decide to stab Badenoch in the back. Badenoch is too dim to see this.

hardly anywhere in Birmingham is electorally important for the Tories

Not true.

You'll remember Jenrick being pictured hanging a flag off a lamp-post in Newark (which actually is illegal)...

Highways Act 1980, Section 132, paragraph 1:

(1)A person who, without either the consent of the highway authority for the highway in question or an authorisation given by or under an enactment or a reasonable excuse, paints or otherwise inscribes or affixes any picture, letter, sign or other mark upon the surface of a highway or upon any tree, structure or works on or in a highway is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 4 on the standard scale].

This whole flag-shagging nonsense started in the council estates of the South of Birmingham in places like Weoley Castle and Northfield, which have a predominantly white working class demographic. For the Tories to have a good night in the Local Elections next year they've got to ensure that Birmingham moves from a Labour Majority Council to No Overall Control, with the Tories being the king makers in terms of forming an administration. I'd say it is highly unlikely the Tories and Labour would do a deal to run the council and Labour have just had half a dozen deselected councillors defect to the Corbyn/Sultana "we aren't sure what to call ourselves party". It is pretty certain Labour will lose inner city seats in Birmingham including Handsworth and Ladywood (the Westminster constituency of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood).

A bad night for the Tories next May would see Reform taking the Outer Birmingham wards like Weoley Castle, Northfield, Oscott and Kingstanding and being in a position to be dominant on Birmingham City Council, with the Tories losing control of Walsall Council and Dudley Council to Reform. The question is do those Tories who think Badenoch is a liability as leader put the boot in now, or let things play out and wait until a May drubbing.

 

[styles]

I know this is slightly off topic as it doesn't relate to Badeboch, but someone pointed out to me today that if Liz Truss lives to 92 then she will have spent more days as ex-PM at the Cenotaph than as Prime Minister.

Gave me a chuckle.

 

[BAFRA77]

I know this is slightly off topic as it doesn't relate to Badeboch, but someone pointed out to me today that if Liz Truss lives to 92 then she will have spent more days as ex-PM at the Cenotaph than as Prime Minister.

Gave me a chuckle.

One of them is a visual reminder of the darkest days this nation faced on the brink of oblivion - and the other is a war memorial...

 

[ainsworth74]

I'm going to drop this here because it started under the previous Tory administration and headed up by a Tory mayor. But a month or so before Christmas Private Eye published a special report on Teesworks and the interesting financial affairs. Really it was more of a single narrative putting together the whole story from beginning through to the date of publication. There was nothing particularly new but it was powerful (and infuriating) for having it all laid out in one place. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand just what is being done with taxpayer money and which is desperately needed to actually deliver economic growth to this region but in all likelihood is mostly being syphoned off into the pockets of a few private individuals.

Stripped Tees

A Private Eye Special Report

By Richard Brooks

How Britain’s flagship ‘levelling up’ project turned into a scandalous giveaway

IT WAS to be the UK’s largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport. But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of the River Tees became little more than an unlawful, taxpayer-funded scheme to promote the political career of a Tory golden boy and vastly enrich a couple of local businessmen and their families, all hidden in a web of deception. In the process, it is financially imperilling a major regional development body and squandering the chance to revive one of the country’s most deprived but industrially promising areas. This is how it happened...

Special Report: Stripped Tees

IT WAS to be the UK’s largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport. But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of the RiverTees became little more than an unlawful, taxpayer-funded scheme to promote the...

www.private-eye.co.uk

If you can read this whole thing and not be enraged at those that let it happen and those that fail to properly investigate it and put a stop to it you're better than I!

 

[Purple Train]

I'm going to drop this here because it started under the previous Tory administration and headed up by a Tory mayor. But a month or so before Christmas Private Eye published a special report on Teesworks and the interesting financial affairs. Really it was more of a single narrative putting together the whole story from beginning through to the date of publication. There was nothing particularly new but it was powerful (and infuriating) for having it all laid out in one place. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand just what is being done with taxpayer money and which is desperately needed to actually deliver economic growth to this region but in all likelihood is mostly being syphoned off into the pockets of a few private individuals.

Special Report: Stripped Tees

IT WAS to be the UK’s largest regeneration scheme in decades, a model for regional devolution and the flagship post-Brexit freeport. But the redevelopment of the former steelworks on the south bank of the RiverTees became little more than an unlawful, taxpayer-funded scheme to promote the...

www.private-eye.co.uk

If you can read this whole thing and not be enraged at those that let it happen and those that fail to properly investigate it and put a stop to it you're better than I!

Indeed, I read that at the time and steam started escaping from my ears. However Starmer gifts freebies Taylor Swift freeloaders blah blah...

Genuinely though, I don't understand how this can have got such little attention!

 

[Harpo]

Genuinely though, I don't understand how this can have got such little attention!

As with so many being blissfully ignorant of the very long running Post Office scandal, perhaps the answer is that not enough people read Private Eye?

 

[gg1]

Indeed, I read that at the time and steam started escaping from my ears. However Starmer gifts freebies Taylor Swift freeloaders blah blah...

Genuinely though, I don't understand how this can have got such little attention!

Because it's a local issue which affects an area the national media barely know exists. If this had happened in London it would be headline news.

 

[Tetchytyke]

If you can read this whole thing and not be enraged at those that let it happen and those that fail to properly investigate it and put a stop to it you're better than I!

It's always been the way that the media will shout loudly about Labour corruption and you won't hear a peep from them when it comes to Conservative corruption.

Don't believe me? Look at the John Poulson corruption issues in the early 70s.

Poulson went to prison for the corruption. So did Labour's T Dan Smith, and righty so, given he was as bent as a nine bob note. But what of Reginald Maudling, the Conservative Home Secretary and also up to his neck in Poulson's corruption network? He got to walk away with not a scratch on him, but not until after he'd told bare-faced lies in Parliament about Bloody Sunday.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2026 ==

Because it's a local issue which affects an area the national media barely know exists. If this had happened in London it would be headline news.

If it had been a Labour mayor it would be headline news, just as Derek Hatton's escapades were and continue to be headline news.

 

[BAFRA77]

It's always been the way that the media will shout loudly about Labour corruption and you won't hear a peep from them when it comes to Conservative corruption.

Don't believe me? Look at the John Poulson corruption issues in the early 70s.

Poulson went to prison for the corruption. So did Labour's T Dan Smith, and righty so, given he was as bent as a nine bob note. But what of Reginald Maudling, the Conservative Home Secretary and also up to his neck in Poulson's corruption network? He got to walk away with not a scratch on him, but not until after he'd told bare-faced lies in Parliament about Bloody Sunday.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Jan 2026 ==


If it had been a Labour mayor it would be headline news, just as Derek Hatton's escapades were and continue to be headline news.

There was a good episode on T. Dan Smith on the Podcast "No Gods - No Mayors"

https://zeno.fm/podcast/no-gods-no-mayors/episodes/t-dan-smith/

This week, mayor November brings us a very ambitious and very flawed man, Mr. Newcastle himself, T. "The" Dan Smith. A self-described "fool surrounded by a pack of leeches." Will he succeed in turning Newcastle Brutalist? Will we find out why he lives in a mansion? Find out!

 

[Harpo]

It's always been the way that the media will shout loudly about Labour corruption and you won't hear a peep from them when it comes to Conservative corruption.

Or other non-Labour figures. There’s a house purchase in Clacton that still hasn’t been analysed anywhere near as much as Angela Rayner’s purchases were.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Hang on. You mean there's some sort of correlation between virtually all of the media being owned or controlled by right wing people and right wing politicians not having their misdemeanours splashed all over the front pages?

That's a shock

 

[MotCO]

But isn't it usually the case that the party in power faces greater media scrutiny than the party in opposition? Look at how Boris was hounded out of office for having a piece of birthday cake, yet Starmer and Rayner had beer and curry in a party in Durham and got away with it.

 

[DarloRich]

Look at how Boris was hounded out of office for having a piece of birthday cake, yet Starmer and Rayner had beer and curry in a party in Durham and got away with it.

Assuming you are trying to make a serious point: they are not comparable issues despite the efforts of Tories to conjoin them and make out that "all politicians broke the rules" in thier desperate desire to project the odious Johnson. It was a story entire concocted and amplified by Tories, including the local MP, and thier media/alt media chums. Frankly they should have been charged with wasting police time!

There were very different rules in place in April 2021 when the "beergate" events took place compared with the rules in place at the end of 2020 when the "partygate" activities took place, but you know that.

the wiki write up is perfectly clear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beergate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beergate

On 7 February 2022, Durham Constabulary cleared Starmer over allegedly breaking lockdown rules. They said that, after reviewing the Durham video, "We do not believe an offence has been established in relation to the legislation and guidance in place at that time and will therefore take no further action in relation to this matter."

I'm going to drop this here because it started under the previous Tory administration and headed up by a Tory mayor. But a month or so before Christmas Private Eye published a special report on Teesworks and the interesting financial affairs.

utterly outrageous. In fairness Private Eye have been on to them since day 1 - unlike the Great Daily of the North ( Northern Echo).

Imagine if that had been a Labour mayor............................

 

[Bald Rick]

But isn't it usually the case that the party in power faces greater media scrutiny than the party in opposition?

Whilst this is usually true, the issues on Teeside have been going on, and knwon abiut, for a lot, lot longer than the current Government’s tenure. The previous Government even conducted an inquiry, which was rather under reported at the time, in my view.

 

[H F Stephens]

Whilst this is usually true, the issues on Teeside have been going on, and knwon abiut, for a lot, lot longer than the current Government’s tenure. The previous Government even conducted an inquiry, which was rather under reported at the time, in my view.

Under ‘reported’? Under ’inquired’ might be more accurate.

 

[Bald Rick]

Under ‘reported’? Under ’inquired’ might be more accurate.

Or both!

 

[brad465]

DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenrick tells BBC his defection to Reform not about personal ambition and will 'unite the right'

In an exclusive interview with Laura Kuenssberg, he says he made the final decision to defect over Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

Jenrick sacked for 'plotting to defect'
​

Senior Conservative Robert Jenrick has been sacked from the shadow cabinet - and has lost the Tory Whip.

Kemi Badenoch says: "I was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect in a way designed to be as damaging as possible to his shadow cabinet colleagues and the wider Conservative Party.

"The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I.

"They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in THIS government."

 

[Peterthegreat]

It is being reported Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet and withdrawn the whip.
Details to follow.

See above post (#291).

 

[jfollows]

Good.
He’s an unpleasant shape shifter who’s only interested in himself, just like Boris was, and if this is a step towards detoxifying the Conservative party then it’s a good thing, although they’ve still got a long way to go.

 

[BAFRA77]

DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jenrick tells BBC his defection to Reform not about personal ambition and will 'unite the right'

In an exclusive interview with Laura Kuenssberg, he says he made the final decision to defect over Christmas.

www.bbc.co.uk

"They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in THIS government."

She must still be under the illusion that her lot are still in Government - what with the 23 defections and counting to CONform UK so far.

Another death blow to her credibility as Party Leader...

 

[SuspectUsual]

Coming soon to a Farage press conference near you *




* unless you live in Clacton

 

[Bayum]

Once a rat, always a rat. Quite apt for him jumping the sinking ship.

 

[ChrisC]

Another death blow to her credibility as Party Leader...

I’m actually now beginning to quite like her!

 

[JamesT]

"They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in THIS government."

She must still be under the illusion that her lot are still in Government - what with the 19 defections and counting to CONform UK so far.

Another death blow to her credibility as Party Leader...

I'm fairly sure she's talking about the current Labour government. 7 ministerial resignations and how many policy U-turns in 18 months? I thought Starmer was supposed to be the boringly competent choice at the last election?

 

[BAFRA77]

I'm fairly sure she's talking about the current Labour government. 7 ministerial resignations and how many policy U-turns in 18 months? I thought Starmer was supposed to be the boringly competent choice at the last election?

23 > 7

 

[edwin_m]

23 > 7

And leaving the party is more significant than leaving the front bench.

Pot kettle black or greenhouse stone throwing?