Badenoch has the reins of power in the party. She represents what conservatives should have been all along. Proud, practical and unafraid to say what most people are thinking. The post Ashley Bower-Dyke: Sunak’s timidity broke the Tory majority – now is Badenoch’s moment appeared first on Conservative Home.
Ashley Bower-Dyke is a lifelong Conservative with deep roots in the local community and a strong record of grassroots activism
We did not lose in 2024 because people stopped being Conservative. We lost because the Conservative Party stopped acting like Conservatives.
When Boris Johnson lay there, stripped of leadership, Rishi Sunak’s betrayal still raw, our voters still believed we could deliver. We had an eighty seat majority and a country ready to be led. What followed was infighting, resignations and the slow death of conviction. Sunak’s resignation lit the fuse on Johnson’s downfall and the same group that promised stability gave us the most cautious government in living memory.
Liz Truss came in like a bull in a china shop, ready to smash the shop and rebuild it. Lower taxes, energy independence and cutting red tape. She was right but she moved too fast and lost control of the message. The OBR was not looped in, the markets panicked and the media piled on. Mortgage rates jumped and fear took over.
But the economy was not collapsing. The IMF and OECD both predicted stronger UK growth than France or Germany before she left office. Gilt yields were already easing before she resigned. The problem was not her plan but the ever pessimistic, weak nerves in Westminster and her speed to implement. If she had been given time to steady the ship her pro growth agenda would likely have worked. Instead we handed power to a man whose instinct was cautious management not bold leadership.
Sunak promised stability. What he delivered was more drift than a Tesco trolley on a windy day. He shelved the Bill of Rights that would have restored British control over human rights law. He sat on Priti Patel’s Nationality and Borders Act which was written to stop illegal crossings. The core powers were never used. The rule to reject claims from those who arrived illegally was suspended, deportations were delayed and the offence of illegal entry was rarely prosecuted. Maritime powers to turn boats around were ignored while crossings hit record levels.
The message to the public was clear. All talk and no action we were not listening to their concerns. Sunak raised taxes, choked off growth and allowed migration to explode. Legal migration reached nearly seven hundred thousand in 2023, triple what it was when we won our huge majority in 2019. By 2024 voters looked at us and saw a government in disarray, scared of our own tail and unable to govern.
Reform did not rise because people suddenly changed their values. It rose because we stopped standing up for our own conservative values. Sunak’s hesitation left a gap wider then my teenage daughters definition of a clean room. If the Borders Act had actually been used, if the Bill of Rights had gone through and if we had stuck with the growth plan instead of panicking, Reform would have had nothing to sell. People only turned to them because we went quiet on the issues that they cared about. We created the space and they just walked into it.
This year’s conference finally showed some backbone. Mel Stride called for responsible radicalism with less waste, welfare reform and support for the people who build and make. Chris Philp announced the new ‘Borders Plan’ with a promise to leave the ECHR if that is what it takes to secure our borders and to remove illegal arrivals within a week. Claire Coutinho pushed for energy independence through cheaper and faster nuclear power. The Conservative YIMBY movement finally offered practical answers on housing with more building and less blocking. Even the charismatic Victoria Atkins in her Union Jack Jacket reminded everyone that food security is national security and promised to repeal Labour’s Family Farm Tax.
For the first time in years the party sounded like it was talking to the country, not screaming at it.
Now Kemi Badenoch has the reins of power in the party. She represents what conservatives should have been all along. Proud, practical and unafraid to say what most people are thinking. Her task is clear. Reform the OBR so it advises not dictates and stifles. Deliver the Bill of Rights so British courts, not foreign judges, have the final word. Enforce the Borders Act properly and stop wasting millions on hotels. Cut taxes to get business moving again. Above all give people a reason to believe in Conservatism again.
Caution might calm headlines but it does not win hearts. We lost because Sunak governed like a civil servant on probation not a leader. He inherited a majority and left us with a protest vote.
Badenoch now has one job. Put the fight back into the Conservative Party. The country does not want another manager. It wants a leader with courage, conviction and common sense. That is how we win again and get the voters back onside.
The post Ashley Bower-Dyke: Sunak’s timidity broke the Tory majority – now is Badenoch’s moment appeared first on Conservative Home.
