Ever since Kemi Badenoch took over as Tory leader, many Conservative critics have claimed she’s failed to make an impact. Countless backbenchers, usually hiding behind anonymity, have been quick to say she’s going nowhere.
Chief among their complaints is her performance at the weekly parliamentary showdowns with Keir Starmer. Time and again, they moan, she picks the wrong topics, asks the wrong questions, and fails to pounce on the Prime Minister’s missteps. Why can’t she hit Starmer with both barrels, they ask, like Nigel Farage does with ease?
But that criticism is unlikely to surface again anytime soon. Not after Badenoch’s decisive dismantling of Starmer over his defeat by Labour welfare rebels.
At first, Starmer managed to fend off her attacks, and it looked like Badenoch would once again leave empty-handed. You could almost hear her Tory critics muttering that she couldn’t even score an open goal. But Badenoch wasn’t done. Starmer was just the starter.
She then turned her focus to the person sitting behind him, Rachel Reeves, demanding that Starmer guarantee her job was safe.
