Tory modernisation has failed
One of the most important developments in British politics today, therefore, is the extraordinary implosion of the Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch. Its scale is remarkable in its own right, but it also has profound implications for how Britain is governed. Think about how Labour behaves as it shifts its focus from the Conservatives to Reform ahead of the next general election. Without the collapse in support for the Tories – and the corresponding rise in the polls for Nigel Farage – would Starmer ever have uttered the words 'island of strangers'? The Prime Minister's mistake reveals a deeper truth: he and his government have yet to develop a strategy for how to deal with Farage
The rub of Will Lloyd's cover story this week is simple: Kemi isn't working. For those who may (understandably) take some joy from this, Will's piece offers pause for thought. While it is absolutely the case that one of the reasons Badenoch is failing is her own limitations, there is no getting away from a deeper truth: she is also struggling because of nastier currents in society.
Badenoch is not struggling because she is too right wing. Quite the opposite, in fact. For many of those agitating against her leadership, she represents the failed project of modernisation (as they would see it) of the David Cameron years. Today, the 'New Right' wants a far more Trump- (or Farage-) inflected conservatism than the one Badenoch is offering. Another reason the mood has soured is that a growing segment of the New Right has become dangerously fixated on questions of race, ethnicity and demographics. For some young Tories, it seems, Badenoch will never be British enough. This is a grim trend that we at the New Statesman feel a duty to expose.
One final lesson from Will's piece is the continued failure of our political class to meet the challenges before it. As a friend put it to me recently, the problems the country now faces are at least as acute as any we have faced for decades, while the quality of our leaders seems to deteriorate from one parliament to the next. As our problems become bigger, our politicians get smaller. And so we enter a doom loop of hopelessness and despair, as one government after the next fails to rise to the challenge before it. Badenoch, in other words, may simply be a symptom of a deeper structural problem in Britain (and the West) today.
Of course, Badenoch is not the only party leader in Westminster struggling in the polls. Andrew Marr delves into the disquiet bubbling just below the surface in Labour. As ever, his column is a must-read for those who want to understand the inner workings of the government. Meanwhile, Oliver Eagleton examines the lasting legacy of the war in Afghanistan, which continues to cast its shadow over British politics. Will Dunn looks at the extraordinary inertia of our governing class and Pippa Bailey casts her eye over Labour's (sensible) changes to sex education in schools – some good news at last! We have expanded Correspondence to reflect the huge number of letters we have received following last week's cover story about war crimes in Gaza.
In the New Society, we have compiled our list of the best summer reads (including Don't Forget We're Here Forever by the New Statesman columnist Lamorna Ash), Finn McRedmond decamps to Chianti, and Michael Prodger reviews a book by the artist David Gentleman (he of those beautiful murals at London's Charing Cross Underground station).
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Before I sign off, I'd like to draw the reader's attention to one final piece in this week's magazine. Hannah Barnes reflects on the devastating death of her brother in a motorcycle crash. Life is precious and fragile. Perhaps it is so precious because it is so fragile. I hope that we at the New Statesman try to live it with vim and vigour while we can, bringing you life in all its pain and joy, glory and tragedy: a magazine reporting on our world as it is, while always having an eye on how we want it to be.
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This article appears in the 23 Jul 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Kemi Isn't Working
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