Ask any former party leader and they all say the same thing. They absolutely hated PMQs. Its brutal and the one point in the week when the Commons turns into a very public bear pit. There is no place to hide. It can make or break a leadership. The last few Wednesday sessions Kemi Badenoch has come a cropper, and it’s started to raise serious questions about her ability to lead the Conservatives out of the wilderness.
She faces numerous challenges. The first is historic, It’s rare that the Leader after a post-election wipeout goes on to become successful. Hague, Howard and Iain Duncan Smith all struggled to rebuild the party during the Blair landslides. They were stop gap caretaker leaders having to serve time until the political pendulum changed direction.
PMQs can make or break a leadership.
UK Parliament
This time round the task is even harder, it’s not just a right to left shift in power she is up against. Reform have totally re written the political landscape and she doesn’t know how to respond. She is like a rabbit caught in the headlights of Farage’s bandwagon, running to his agenda rather than setting her own. If you take a look at her line of questions at PMQs they could easily have been asked by Farage - the only difference - he would articulate them better.
She thinks she is speaking to the country on immigration but in reality, she and Reform are in a battle to win over the same voters in a space that might only be occupied by a third if the electorate. If she is to show the Tories have learnt the lessons of the defeat and are ready to govern then she needs to develop a narrative on the other issues that worry voters.
Labours first months in office have presented the Tories with an open goal, but Badenoch has been off target so far. She should be talking about the patients stuck in corridors in our hospitals, pensioners having benefits cut and the disastrous Reeves economic mismanagement. If the Tory party is to change it needs to own new issues. Regularly raising the NHS at PMQs would be a good start and put Starmer on the back foot.
Michael Howard struggled as Tory leader following a Labour landslide victory.
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There is one final challenge that’s much harder for Badenoch to fix. There is something not down to earth or likeable about her. Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith struggled to be popular, whatever they did or said the negative image never shifted. She will suffer the same fate. From the voice to the rather patronizing manner, she is not relatable. Her performances in parliament are wooden, legalistic and badly prepared. She lacks the ability to change course when her first question fails to hit home. She’s so bad she makes Starmer look good.
At the very least she should bring in a new team to write and prepare for PMQs, get a voice coach (everyone else is) and soften the image.
As Reform marches ahead in the polls there is an inevitability about her failed leadership. I give it less than a year. Local election defeats this May, poor poll ratings and a bad conference speech in October will probably seal her fate. It may only be the lack of an alternative that keeps her in place for longer.
