Even Kemi Badenoch’s closest allies admit she needs to get better - but she may be running out of time

Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride had intended to talk about one failed female Tory leader with his keynote speech in London on Thursday morning - but ended up discussing another instead.

Sir Mel had intended to apologise about Liz Truss’ mini-Budget and set a new economic path back to recovery for the Conservative Party. But he ended up providing some less than helpful comments about his current leader Kemi Badenoch.

The added problem was that the remarks he made were unsolicited.

He was asked by a journalist whether the leadership election rules should be changed to prevent someone like Ms Truss becoming leader again. But instead, he took the opportunity to say some things about his current, much under fire, leader Ms Badenoch.

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He said: “She will get better through time. At the media she will get better through time and at the dispatch box. Just as Margaret Thatcher, when she became [party leader] she was a new broom in 1975 and was often criticised about everything from her hair to the clothes she wore to the pitch of her voice, her head, who knows what else. In the end, she got it together, and Kemi will do.”

He insisted the shadow cabinet was “all united” behind her - a statement that is patently not true.

For evidence of why she needs to get better we only needed to see this week’s tracker poll by Techne UK which put the Tories on a mere 17 per cent (admittedly up 1) a full 14 points behind Reform on 31 per cent. It was no comfort that Labour are also struggling on 23 per cent because the polling also showed well over a third (37 per cent) of 2024 general election Tory voters have deserted to Reform.

As Techne UK’s chief executive Michela Morizzo noted: “It will be difficult for Conservatives to be competitive again in the short term if no (positive) shocking news happen on their side.”

Even in this context, Sir Mel’s remarks were an astonishing admission. His intention was probably to be helpful, but he just confirmed what everyone else was thinking; that his leader was a poor performer on the media, doing badly in the Commons chamber, and was essentially not up to the job at the moment.

To liken it to the mid-1970s - when there was no social media nor a party like Reform UK competing on the right - was, as the old saying goes, comparing apples with oranges.

Speaking at the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Mel could not have painted a more vivid picture of Tory dysfunction.

But let us be frank. His faint praise, if it was as nice as that, summed up the consensus within the party.

In fact, it is hard to find a Conservative MP or activist who will say privately that their leader is doing a great job.

One shadow minister this week told The Independent that many of them have “resorted to gallows humour” to keep their spirits up.

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One of the few new Tory MPs complained that they could “count the number of seconds on their fingers” that Ms Badenoch had spoken to them since becoming leader.

Added to that she is being constantly outshone at every turn by her former leadership rival shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, not least with his video stunts.

The recent one catching fare dodgers at Stratford tube station was planned by Mr Jenrick’s team before with no reference to the leader. Ms Badenoch’s own video meeting grooming gang victims was completely overshadowed by Mr Jenrick chasing non-payers down Transport for London (TfL) escalators.

The constant criticism is that her lack of policies and charisma are seeing the party’s support collapse in the face of Nigel Farage and Reform.

The reality is that while none of the MPs can work out how to force Ms Badenoch out, they are all preparing for a potential leadership election for a replacement.

Mr Jenrick is now the frontrunner but it was no coincidence that former foreign and home secretary Sir James Cleverly has been giving interviews offering an alternative vision for left-leaning Tories.

Sir Mel wants a period of “thoughtfulness” to work out policy and give Ms Badenoch time to find her feet. In the fast moving nature of 2025 politics, Ms Badenoch may not have much time left to prove herself.