Badenoch Brings Unity and a Policy Blueprint to Birmingham
Kemi Badenoch led the Conservative Party into its annual conference in Birmingham from Sunday 4 October to Wednesday 7 October 2026. Conservative Party
On 5 October 2026, she had led the party for almost two years. That made her the longest-serving Tory leader since Boris Johnson, after five leaders in the previous eight years. The Guardian MPs described themselves as united behind her after that period of quick turnover.
Badenoch arrived in Birmingham to cheers from supporters. BBC Ahead of the conference, she spoke to Laura Kuenssberg. BBC In a separate pre-conference interview, she said Labour "had not been good for London". BBC
The programme was built around The Right Way, her 30,000-word pamphlet on Conservative principles. The Guardian It was published on 4 October 2026. The party described it as a major statement of Conservative principles setting out how the party will govern Britain. Conservative Party
On the first day of the conference, Badenoch pledged to abolish the "absurd" childcare cliff edge. Conservative Party A cliff edge here means a rule where a small rise in income triggers a sharp loss of childcare support. The pledge gave delegates an early domestic policy offer alongside the principles document.
Andrew Griffith served as shadow chancellor under Badenoch, in effect the opposition's lead spokesperson on the economy, and Kevin Hollinrake MP served as party chairman. The Guardian During a conference Q&A, Badenoch was asked to choose between Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, both of whom had defected to Reform. The Guardian She said the choice was "like asking whether she would rather be shot or drowned". The Guardian
Some Conservative MPs in Birmingham said Badenoch should focus more on the economy and less on culture wars, debates over social values, to win over centrist voters, those near the middle of the political spectrum. The Guardian They described it as an electoral argument, not a personal one. Loyalty to the leader coexisted with debate over message.
The broader context here is what this setup allows next. A leader with tenure, a principles pamphlet and a specific childcare pledge has tools for discipline and definition that her immediate predecessors lacked. The test cited by MPs is electoral, tied to voters the party lost and must recover, and to whether debates over social values crowd out arguments about the cost of living. Whether The Right Way and the Birmingham platform settle that debate will shape candidate selection, shadow Treasury messaging under Griffith, and party management under Hollinrake through to the next general election.
