The Fight for Britain’s Right: Can Kemi Badenoch Reboot the Conservatives?

Plain-speaking, confident and buoyed by rising personal ratings, Kemi Badenoch has gained a tight grip on Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party since she became its leader in 2024, following its disastrous general election defeat. But as she prepared for a keynote speech on Wednesday at her party’s annual conference in Birmingham, England, Ms. Badenoch, who is the first Black leader of a major British political party, faces battles on two fronts.

Despite her own improved ratings , the Conservatives are less popular with voters, surveys suggest, than when they suffered their catastrophic election loss in 2024. According to opinion polls they trail not just the governing Labour Party — rejuvenated under its recently-installed leader, Prime Minister Andy Burnham — but also the right-wing populist Reform U.K. party, led by Nigel Farage. Mr. Farage has had a rocky few months, with questions swirling about his finances and those of his party , but Reform’s support in the polls still hovers at around 22 percent, about five percentage points above the Tories.

The fractures on Britain’s political right could help the Labour Party in the next general election, analysts say, which must be called by 2029 but could come sooner. “Farage has not yet conceded that he can’t kill the Conservatives and perhaps still hopes that he can,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “And Badenoch shows no signs of wanting to do a deal with Reform, at least before the election."

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