Kemi Badenoch the Bond villain calmly explains she is not Liz Truss

Not that long ago, Kemi Badenoch sacked Mel Stride as shadow chancellor and appointed Andrew Griffith as part of a reshuffle that was apparently required to make the Tory party “election-ready”. Several weeks later, an election does not appear imminent, and that’s just as well as the now second most senior figure in the party does not appear all that ready just yet. It fell to Griffith to introduce a Badenoch speech on Tuesday morning, on the subject of next week’s budget. It was, for all intents and purposes, his first sighting in public since his already iconic party conference speech, most notably his exit, stage right, to the sound of no hands clapping. Most commented 1 Forgotten particle may hold key to how universe survived big bang Science 241 comments 2 Lily Allen: ‘I felt I was a vehicle for male pleasure — not my own’ Music 225 comments 3 ‘We got a call yesterday. Birth mum’s had another baby’ Parenting 32 comments 4 Doctor Who and me — Russell T Davies on his life in TV Books 24 comments 5 Budget 2026 predictions: when is it and what could be announced? Economics 234 comments Griffith is clearly a talented man, with a glittering business career and all manner of precocious achievements, but among his many gifts, oratory is not to be found. He’d come to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and as such he felt he had to praise the work of civil engineers, in building things like trains and the nearby Horse Guards Parade. He looked up at the walls around him and claimed to be inspired by the great deeds of great people who had met there. Watch: Badenoch sets out the Conservatives’ economic plans But they’d come to the Institution of Civil Engineers mainly because it is a highly convenient private hire venue that’s within a two-minute walk of the House of Commons. The weight of history does indeed feel heavy in that place, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it inspiring. It was from where Griffith was standing that Anna Soubry and Heidi Allen once launched what would eventually become Change UK The Independent Group, and Lee Anderson announced at least one of his defections. I could go on. Top stories 1 16 of the best safaris in Africa Africa The purpose of the event was to heap as much pressure as possible on the chancellor, John Healey. The main problem he faces is that it seems unlikely he is going to be able to find the comparatively small amount of money that is required to increase defence spending to the level he demanded in his own resignation letter . If he doesn’t do it, he will have set fire to his own reputation, so we should at least consider the possibility that it might not be all that easy. Advertisement But not for Badenoch . She was here to set out a vision of how the Conservatives are going to increase defence spending, and start paying down the nation’s enormous debts, and offer tens of billions in tax cuts, all at the same time. Top stories 1 Prepare now for the inheritance tax mess coming for your pension Tax “We need to live within our means,” she said. Each word was delivered as if it were its own sentence. Badenoch’s now complete transformation into an accomplished political performer has reached the point where she seems to believe herself to have become infallible. If she says it, then it must make sense, even if, just very occasionally, it’s possible that it doesn’t. Badenoch made clear to those listening that she was nothing like Liz Truss Stefan Rousseau/PA We don’t know, for example, how many party conference speeches Badenoch will give before the next election, but on current trends, each one comes with a roughly £10bn tax cut, be it on stamp duty or inheritance tax. There are easier ways to live within your means than this, but life’s a lot easer when you’re in opposition, as Badenoch is finding out. She spoke, unsurprisingly, of Healey’s resignation as defence secretary over the failure to meet the commitment of spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence. “If he does not find the money to get to that commitment, he will have a lot of explaining to do,” she said. “And we are hearing that the decision has been kicked into next autumn’s spending review . If this is true he is putting our troops at risk.” Advertisement Once upon a time, Badenoch would have shouted these lines with righteous anger. Now she simply emits them into the world with a gentle menace, like a James Bond villain calmly explaining the intricate details of an imminent act of horrific violence she has been left with no choice but to commit. We had it explained to us that “Labour are taking out more loans to pay the interest on existing debt”. And how, if the interest rate on government borrowing “were just 2 per cent lower, it would save £20bn a year”. This is a problem with which an entire generation of graduates with student loans are terrifyingly familiar. By 2066, £20bn will be about the going rate for a sociology degree. Kemi Badenoch puts cutting ‘immoral’ inheritance tax at core of speech It didn’t help that while she was speaking, Liz Truss was announcing she had written a book, called Bank Job , which will explain exactly how she didn’t do anything wrong and everything was the Bank of England’s fault. It felt like it had been timed to remind the nation that the soaring cost of government borrowing isn’t really all the current government’s fault. And it also forced Badenoch to do what she will have to spend an entire election campaign doing, whenever it eventually comes, which is disassociating herself from Liz Truss. “I discovered the mini-budget, sitting on the green benches of the House of Commons, at the same time as the rest of the country,” she said. “I am not Liz Truss and I think that the public can tell the difference.” Advertisement The public can tell the difference, but she may have to accept that for her party, the road to redemption still has a long way to go.