“Britain needs strong and decisive leadership”

Conservative Spring conference part 2

11/03/2026

Kemi Badenoch came to the stage in Harrogate on Saturday morning in front of a dedicated and enthusiastic crowd of conservative loyalists. She spoke for just less than forty minutes, using her speech to address the biggest problems facing the country today and to promise to deliver an improved conservative party to the electorate when they next face the ballot box. 

The first portion of her speech was mainly focused on the crisis in the middle east and the lack of readiness displayed by the government in responding to the developing conflict. Badenoch asserted that “we are in this war, whether Keir Starmer likes it or not”. When she delivered her speech it was by then known publicly that not only was the destroyer HMS Dragon not yet ready to sail to Cyprus, but that America had also requested use of British bases for limited defense purposes and was denied access by the Labour government - on March 2nd the decision changed and America as granted access to Diego Garcia and Fairford airbases. Another U-turn?

But she also highlighted (just as this page has) the fact that the conflict in Iran is not the only threat facing Britain, which the country is underprepared for. The government must also acknowledge the continuing threat from Vladimir Putin`s Russia which is staunchly loyal to the Iranian regime, offering Iranian leadership “unwavering support”. But, Kemi Badenoch also spoke on China and Xi Jinping “leading an axis of authoritarian states” each of whom has seen Britain's slow - some may argue weak- response and the lack of support we have shown our allies and must now be thinking how they can use this to further their own agenda. She is not incorrect in her assertion that this “era of peace is coming to an end” and perhaps this is something our labour government had not anticipated thus explaining their delay in action. 

Littered throughout her speech, unsuprisingly, were attacks on the current government and what she saw as “student politics” running the country. She framed herself as the only credible leader from any political party going into the next election. She claimed Starmer is a “political hostage”, Rachel Reeves “astonishingly naive” and that Reform as a whole are “not going to keep Britain safe”. Both Ed Davey and Zac Polanski were mentioned in passing with no real time spent on attacking their parties, perhaps indicating that the Conservatives do not see either party as a credible threat going into the local elections in May. 

From the point of view of an observer and not that of a party member I would say that much of what was in her speech was said to please the crowd. New initiatives were unveiled as applause points but no statistics or figures were given to support them. One example being the plan to employ 10,000 more police officers. There was no mention of a timeframe, no mention of where the 10,000 new recruits will be stationed. Are they going to be employed by the Met police and patrol across London where crime is rife, or will the rest of the country also see these new recruits to tackle the rising crime in their area. I fully support employing more police officers, but Badenoch did not mention the cost and what may be sacrificed to pay for this. Announcing this is easy, providing data or any further detail is hard.

One thing that did stand out to me throughout the conference and in the days leading up to it was the repeated mentions of Margaret Thatcher and indeed the photo opportunity for Kemi where she was able to further liken herself to the Iron Lady. On March 6th, the day before her conference speech she and Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge posed on a Boxer (armoured fighting vehicle) during a visit to an arms contractor in Stockport. The photo op gave Mrs Badenoch an opportunity to frame herself in the image of Margaret Thatcher, who was photographed riding a challenger tank in 1986 at a NATO base in West Germany. 

Further to this, during his speech Mel Stride affectionately referred to the former Prime Minister as `Maggie` telling the audience that she understood something that was later forgotten and evidently something the shadow chancellor and the leader of the opposition have in mind: “it is the private sector that drives prosperity, not government.” Earlier in his speech Stride insisted the Conservatives were the natural party of “makers and doers”,making it clear now, in their opinion the Conservatives are the best party to support entrepreneurship and industry. Further to this, on Kemi Badenoch`s website she published an essay Remembering Thatcher, at the end of which she wrote “Lady Thatcher`s legacy is my mission: to make Britain prosper again.” 

With these recurring references to the Iron Lady`s leadership and her style of policy I would suggest that under Kemi Badenoch`s leadership the Conservative party is aiming for a return to Thatcherism, or in this more modern and complex time, as close as they can get. 

Kemi Badenoch ended her address with some patriotism and some humour, praising the fact that “Britain is a great country”. Then she poked fun at those that had defected from the party, joking “I got my spring cleaning done early this year” which was succeeded by an eruption of laughter and more applause. But she also made it clear to her audience that in spite of the mistakes of the past, including those made by a government she was a part of, the party had changed and was ready to regain the trust of the electorate. 

“There is only one Conservative party, and that conservative party is back!”