Badenoch wraps leadership run with plugs for Kamala Harris and Taylor Swift

Kemi Badenoch closed her run for the leadership of the U.K. Conservative Party with a last-ditch appeal to members who haven’t yet voted to plump for her over rival Robert Jenrick.

Badenoch told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast that the two remaining hopefuls had fundamentally different approaches. “One of the differences between us is that he takes a lawyer’s view of reform and I take an engineer’s view,” she said.

Jenrick “has said that he would commit to leaving the ECHR [the European Convention on Human Rights]. I have said I think we are going to need … to leave it, but I haven’t got a plan for how we do [that], given all of these areas that it’s entangled [with] in the devolution settlements, the Good Friday agreement, [and] how … we manage issues around common law, where legislation and decisions have embedded a lot into [U.K.] common law.

“I know that lots of people think if you just scrap stuff, then it’ll be fine,” she added. “But law is more like engineering. It’s more like coding. You can’t just delete things you don’t like.”

Speaking in her Commons office after Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered Labour’s landmark first budget, raising taxes and borrowing in pursuit of economic growth, Badenoch responded: “I don’t think the plan is going to work,” and mocked Reeves’ claim to have smashed the “glass ceiling” by becoming the first female chancellor. 

“It was smashed 50 years ago when we had a party leader — Margaret Thatcher — who was female and eventually a prime minister, before I was born, and probably just before Rachel Reeves was born,” Badenoch said. “At the end of the day, Rachel Reeves was appointed by a man. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s no glass ceiling that has been smashed. The gilt markets don’t care whether or not it’s a female chancellor … It’s no big deal.”

After an often scratchy contest that exposed Badenoch to accusations of being undiplomatic, she extended an olive branch to the party’s outgoing leader, Rishi Sunak, saying it would be “very helpful for us having a former prime minister still in the Commons.”

Speaking in the wake of new terror-related charges brought against Axel Rudakubana, who was accused of murdering three young children at a dance class in Southport in July, a crime that was followed by far-right riots, Badenoch shot back at criticism from Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Conservative contenders should “either support the police in their difficult task or … could undermine the police in their difficult task.”

“Keir Starmer seemed very rattled and started lashing out,” Badenoch told Power Play. “He doesn’t like being in the spotlight.”

Asked if she felt the authorities had been slow to divulge information, she replied: “There are a lot of people who are angry about that [and] who are speculating about how much did the police know? How much did No. 10 know before making pronouncements on these things? And I think that there’ll be a lot more interrogation of that over the coming week.”

One of the highlights (or otherwise) of a long race for the Tory top job has been criticism from Christopher Chope, a veteran Conservative backbencher, who asked whether Badenoch could combine the job of opposition leader with a family of three young children. “I could not have asked for better publicity,” Badenoch told the podcast. 

“That was very helpful indeed. I do love them, my children, very much. Put me in jail. But I think my children are amazing. They make me happy.”

Ahead of a decisive U.S. election next week, Badenoch praised the Democratic Party candidate, Kamala Harris. “She’s got a very good sense of humor. She’s clearly somebody who speaks with a lot of positivity and optimism.” She added, however, that she believed a trade deal for the U.K. had been closer under Donald Trump’s presidency that during Joe Biden’s tenure.

Badenoch is an enthusiastic dancer. Who would she look to for the soundtrack of a prospective victory party? “I’m very into Taylor Swift right now. I think everybody is, though, to be fair … But we buy our own tickets.”