Kemi Badenoch is a politician who has never been shy about saying exactly what she thinks.
This should not be a unique quality in British Politics. Sadly, it is.
After two decades of British Politics based on spin, Politicians have chased popularity rather than say what they believe is right.
Of course, politicians must win elections.
But elections should be about ideas and beliefs. Ever since Blair junked clause 4 Labour have run further and further away from its socialist heritage to squat in the centre ground of British Politics.
And the Conservatives have run towards them. We have become too shy about arguing in favour of private enterprise and too keen to boast about how much taxpayer’s money we are spending.
Not so Kemi. She is more than prepared to say what she thinks. This should be the hallmark of any politician. It is the job of a politician to show leadership. To say what needs to be said even when it isn’t popular.
It is the job of political leaders to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy when it is wrong. Kemi has done this repeatedly.
As someone who has fought to preserve safe spaces for women in the face of a powerful lobby in favour of gender self ID, she was the best ally I ever had.
Everyone understands that we need to keep male sexual offenders out of women’s prisons. Everyone understands that a man using gender self ID to compete against women in sport is unfair.
None of these things should be matters of debate. But they became so. And Kemi took these matters head on. And this is what British politics now needs. The public is sick of spin.
The public is crying out for a politician who says it as it is. And they want to hear this from a Party that can form a government.
Kemi’s honesty and clarity is a breath of fresh air. Keir Starmer’s lawyerly style will be no match for Kemi’s directness.
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Kemi’s pitch to the Party – Renewal is about resetting the Conservative Party and working up a new plan for Government. As she says we have ‘governed from the left’.
By this she means that we did nothing to tackle the inheritance from Blair. The Human Rights Act, the Equality Act and the Climate Change inhibit what a Conservative Government can do.
And our government departments need to be properly directed to do what we ask of them. Take the Home Office for example. The backlog of unresolved asylum applications and the failure to effect speedy removals is about the behaviour and resources at the Home Office.
As she says leaving the ECHR is no silver bullet to correct everything that is wrong. And let’s be frank. The last thing the Conservative Party needs is another argument where the choices are to leave and remain. If it is going to have an electoral future it must unite as a broad church.
The Conservative Party is now in opposition. It needs to renew with a new offer to the public which is affordable and delivers what the public expects of its government.
In the 1970s it took a brave uncompromising woman prepared to think carefully about what needed to be done to make the Conservative Party electable again.
And she took the Party to victory within five years. So, I have cast my vote for Kemi to be leader of the Conservative Party.
