Kemi Badenoch’s Tories need a corporate overhaul

Like the Manchester United owner, Kemi Badenoch must get a tarnished brand back on winning form, says John Oxley

The “other” election this week may already feel like a distant memory, but for Kemi Badenoch, the work is just beginning. Winning the contest to be Leader of the Opposition may briefly feel like a triumph. The reality, however, is that all it gets you is years of hard work and an uncertain future. The next few years will be a test of how well Badenoch can rebuild. 

Right now, the Conservative Party feels like a classic distressed purchase. Its product – policy and governance – has fallen short of expectations. This has, in turn, tarnished the brand, with the public not just unenthused by the offering but often unwilling to listen. It has already suffered the chaos of a rotating leadership, which has made this hard to correct. This has emboldened new competitors, like Reform, but also discouraged the flow of talent and money into the party. 

The new leader will need a plan to turn each of these around if the party is going to avoid an existential crisis. While Labour may feel in trouble already and is perhaps even more imperilled by the economic consequences of Trump’s victory, there is nothing to say the Conservative party will be the beneficiary of this. Without a real turnaround, it could lose more ground to Reform on the right while failing to have an answer to voters who want more government investment than even the Labour Party is prepared to provide. 

Corporate recovery

Like any corporate recovery, Badenoch is going to have to work out quickly what is salvageable and what needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Barring by-elections, she is saddled with the party’s current MPs, many of whom have escaped blame for their hand in the party’s downfall. Beyond that, she has more freedom. As a campaigning entity, the party needs rejuvenation, as research shows it is both smaller than Labour and far less active. This is the sort of foundational problem that needs to be fixed for the party to have a chance of making the most of the political situation. 

Perhaps trickier will be salvaging the party’s brand. One of the reasons the Conservatives fell so far this summer was that voting against them was far more attractive than voting for them. People want to feel good about how they vote, either on a rational or emotional level. The Conservative Party has struggled to offer either, often alienating itself from many potential supporters. The new leader will need not just popular policies but an overall approach that enthuses people about backing them – and doesn’t motivate their opponents into tactical voting. 

The hope and the challenge for Badenoch is that nothing is inevitable. There is no reason the Tories cannot form a government in five years, but no reason that they are destined to. Turning around failing organisations is hard – but doable. It rests on a bit of luck but also on the hard choices that are often neither internally nor externally popular. Badenoch might find some inspiration from Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is now attempting to get Manchester United back on winning form. 

Much like the Tory Party, the club has failed to find a successful formula for some time. In politics, as in football, failure compounds with money and talent chasing success. So far, Ratcliffe has been divisive and unafraid of being unpopular, starting his tenure with a round of redundancies and cutting back staff perks. Time will tell if Kemi is equally combative and if either of them is able to return the big beast of the past to winning ways. 

John Oxley is a political commentator and associate fellow at Bright Blue