Kemi Badenoch, who became Conservative leader after the party’s heavy 2024 election defeat, has shifted the party rightward. Key “red lines” for candidate selection include:
Net zero:
She has called the UK’s legally binding 2050 net zero target (introduced under Theresa May) “impossible” without major hits to living standards or bankruptcy. The party now opposes sticking rigidly to it and plans to repeal or overhaul related legislation like the Climate Change Act.
ECHR:
Badenoch and the party have committed to leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. They argue it blocks key policies on immigration, borders, deportations, veteran protections, and sentencing. A review led by Lord Wolfson supported this.
Badenoch has signaled that prospective candidates (including some ex-MPs) who won’t align with these positions won’t be selected, aiming for a “party for the future” focused on discipline, attracting non-Westminster talent (businesspeople, engineers, etc.), and differentiating from Labour and Reform UK.
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Tory centrists defy Badenoch’s red lines on net zero and ECHR
Pressure group calls for ‘broad church’ after leader’s vow to exclude candidates who do not align with her policies
Tory centrists have defied Kemi Badenoch over her red lines on net zero and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Telegraph has the story.
Mrs Badenoch has rejected some former Conservative MPs as candidates at the next election for refusing to align with her rejection of the 2050 net zero target and her pledge to leave the ECHR.
But centrist Tories insist that those who supported the 2050 target and Britain’s ongoing membership of the controversial treaty should be able to stand in future.
In an article for The Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch wrote that she was building a “party for the future”, not a “retirement home for failed politicians”.
She said that some of her former colleagues “should never have been candidates before” and they would soon be informed they would not be allowed to stand again.
Prosper UK – a pressure group set up in an attempt to bring the Conservatives back to the centre – claimed that a candidate’s support for Net Zero did not make them less conservative.
Responding to the Tory leader’s remarks, Prosper said: “Kemi Badenoch is right to seek candidates with serious experience beyond Westminster. But the Conservative Party must remain a broad church.
“Requiring agreement on every major issue risks shutting out talented people, narrowing the party’s appeal and making it harder to build the coalition needed to govern.” …
Prominent supporters of Prosper include Amber Rudd, the former Home Secretary, and David Gauke, the former Justice Secretary, who lost the whip in 2019 for defying Boris Johnson over Brexit.
Other backers of the group include Andy Street, the former West Midlands Mayor, and Baroness Davidson, who led the Scottish Tories from 2011 to 2019. …
Responding to her remarks, Mr Gauke said: “There are centre-Right voters who think we should stay in the ECHR and/or think we should get to Net Zero.
“After all, both were long-standing Tory Party policies. Does the Conservative Party want their support or not?” …
Prosper and Mr Gauke’s remarks were dismissed by Lord Frost, the non-affiliated peer and former Tory Cabinet minister who served as Mr Johnson’s Brexit negotiator.
“There is no point in having ‘talented people’ if they don’t want to implement the party’s policy,” he said. “That’s how the Tory party got into a mess before and repeating it will not help in any way. Kemi is entitled to candidates who want to do what she wants to do.”
Read the full story here.
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It’s a classic party leadership vs. internal moderates battle over direction after electoral defeat.
Badenoch is prioritizing ideological coherence and voter differentiation; centrists warn it shrinks the tent.
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