How things have changed. Jenrick is now by far the most energetic member of the shadow Cabinet, producing slick social media videos of him expounding on an issue while walking with real purpose, and managing to create many more attack headlines for the Conservative Party than its real leader.
This week, though, it was Jenrick having to clarify what he had meant after some semi-private comments about the need for some kind of alliance with Reform UK made their way to a journalist. He insisted, not very convincingly, that he and Badenoch were on the same page, adding: “The party’s under new leadership under Kemi. Frankly, I think she’s doing a bloody good job in difficult circumstances. You know, it’s not easy being leader of the opposition when we’ve just lost our worst ever election defeat. Frankly, I think people should give her a break.”
She has had a reasonably good week in that she has been able to complete a victory lap on her stance on sex and gender following the Supreme Court ruling. Attacking Keir Starmer on his own wandering confusion over the definition of a woman at Prime Minister’s Questions also allowed Badenoch to avoid having to make the session about the local elections, which are likely to be uncomfortable for the Tories. Next week might not be quite so enjoyable for the Conservative leader.
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And yet while the mood in the Tory party isn’t exactly euphoric at the moment, there is little sense that a particularly bad set of local elections results will be what tips Badenoch into crisis territory. Most Tory MPs are of the view that another change of leader would make them look ridiculous, with one saying: “She’s not been great, but equally, she’s not done anything terrible yet.”
He is also benefitting by default from the majority of the Conservative shadow Cabinet being so low wattage that it often appears to be in its own energy blackout. Some of those shadow Cabinet members complain privately to friends that they don’t have the chance to say very much as Badenoch isn’t giving them any policy to talk about, and that Jenrick is doing well because he has decided to freelance, often straying far from his brief as shadow justice secretary.
There is logic behind that, but it does mean that the Tory party ends up making policy in a piecemeal fashion as it responds to government announcements and tries to find something to say.
Jenrick would probably find it just as hard to explain how he would do things differently, not least because as Robert Generic, he was a minister in that government too. But at the moment, he has the benefit of not having to do the difficult work while continuing to pump out those social media videos. He might want others to give Badenoch a break, but he’s unlikely to follow that advice himself.
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