Loyalty can be an admirable quality. It is one that Kemi Badenoch values in spades \u2013 and something she requires from her closest allies. \u201cIt was part of what originally won me over,\u201d one shadow cabinet minister tells me.<\/p>\n
That one quality goes a way to explaining why many of her top backers, friends from her intake of 2017 MPs, are now those in top jobs: take Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart MP, her PPS Julia Lopez MP, chief of staff Lee Rowley and even Rachel Maclean as CCHQ\u2019s director of strategy. Former Department of Business and Trade ministers from her time as secretary of state supported her in the leadership contest and they too now have jobs like the party co-chairmen Nigel Huddleston and Lord Dominic Johnson. Old government spads of hers have similarly been rewarded with roles in her Leader of the Opposition Office (LOTO).<\/p>\n
But that same shadow cabinet minister, who first saw Badenoch\u2019s value of loyalty as a positive, now says: \u201cIt is not really working in anyone\u2019s favour\u201d.<\/p>\n
The hangovers of people from government, another shadow cabinet minister adds: \u201cHas led to a real case of governmentitis. LOTO is operating in its own silo as if it is a department. There isn\u2019t that political opposition sense there.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Tory source puts the issue succinctly: \u201cBadenoch prioritises loyalty to her over putting the best people in the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a characterisation another Tory source hits back as \u201cabsurd\u201d, claiming there is \u201ca broad team across the party\u201d in which Badenoch has brought people up who were not associated with her leadership campaign. But one of her new MPs disagrees and describes their experience of LOTO as a \u201cclosed book, stuck in a closed-loop\u201d.<\/p>\n
There are complaints from some within the shadow cabinet that Badenoch \u2013 trusting only those closest to her \u2013 is getting her inner-circle to effectively mark and cross-check all of their work, leading to mass build-up and a clogging of the system.<\/p>\n
A shadow cabinet minister might send something to LOTO for approval, they say, and a week later they could still have not heard anything back: \u201cEverything is running through Lee Rowley, but one person can\u2019t be across everything and it is slowing things down.\u201d Although one Tory source insists that, while Rowley is involved in decision making, things do get delegated.<\/p>\n
Rowley, and the rest of Badenoch\u2019s core group, another Tory source says, are serving as her \u201csecurity blanket\u201d, protecting from criticism Badenoch might face if she were to ever widen her feedback loop \u2013 and it is a comfort she seems \u201cunable to overcome\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bunker mentality \u2013 which hides a real insecurity \u2013 has come really early on,\u201d they add, \u201cit has developed in what should still, in theory, be something of a honeymoon period\u201d.<\/p>\n
I even felt the bunker mentality recently following my latest piece<\/a> about internal party politics and the unhappiness of the new 2024 intake of Tory MPs, after which a senior whip sent a WhatsApp message to their fellow Tories branding me a \u201chostile journalist\u201d.<\/p>\n To that MP, I\u2019d politely point out the slight tautology in being a journalist and being hostile, but also say that \u2013 as one of those who informed me about your words suggested \u2013 if there is that much concern about ConHome reflecting what your own MPs are saying; the picture may not be so rosy and you might want to emerge from the bunker to address it properly with your colleagues.<\/p>\n But considering how highly Badenoch appears to value loyalty, it is not something she, nor her wider team, seem keen on fostering any wider than the group they already have; an interesting move when party leader, with a fifth of your party being new intake.<\/p>\n Even without this, MPs that I speak to recognise that her success is their success so they are actually, despite what some may think, keen for her leadership to succeed. The problem is that while the party doesn\u2019t just plateau, but actually retreats in the polls \u2013 hitting 15 pts and a predicted 46 seats at the next election \u2013 Tory MPs feel they lack a plan of attack.<\/p>\n Badenoch allies insist it exists, but if that is the case, there is a problem communicating or translating said plan any wider than the core group. I asked one Badenoch ally: \u201cHave you been getting involved in engagement with MPs and trying to get the message across?\u201d They told me: \u201cParty engagement is what the whips are for.\u201d Any other MP I have since shared this message with is left similarly astonished by the nonchalant, flippant attitude of the response.<\/p>\n There have been signs of Badenoch herself starting to put some effort into at least the MP engagement side of this. After PMQs \u2013 where colleagues comment that she has made improvements \u2013 she has started hosting a pizza lunch of groups of different MPs, and recently she held another LOTO drinks for her colleagues. But it doesn\u2019t entirely serve its purpose if, as one Tory source tells me, \u201cshe is stood in the corner speaking to Julia Lopez most of the time\u201d.<\/p>\n They add: \u201cIf you can\u2019t connect to your parliamentary colleagues, why are we putting you in a position to connect with the public?\u201d<\/p>\n Lopez is spoken of with a certain warmth but a recognition that LOTO PPS, which theoretically involves much engagement and socialising between the backbenches and Badenoch, may not be the best fit for her \u2013 and perhaps a shadow job relating to DSIT, the department she enjoyed working in during government, may prove much more suitable.<\/p>\n There is a general fondness for Burghart too, who is running the policy process, but some in shadow cabinet have begun to get frustrated at the insistence of constant consultations for almost every policy proposal. \u201cThere are certain things I think we can say with confidence that we should be doing,\u201d one shadow cabinet minister tells me, \u201cwithout having to turn to a thinktank or a policy board to tell us\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are meant to be politicians after all. We should be able to make some of our own decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n LOTO meanwhile has requested that each month shadow cabinet ministers submit multiple separate reports on their progress in the brief to the political secretary and the policy programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n That means LOTO would be receiving more than 30 reports per month. Except, apparently, they\u2019re not. There are shadow cabinet teams who claim to have simply stopped filing them because they take up so much time \u2013 and, guess what? Nobody appears to have noticed, or at least if they have, they don\u2019t care as nobody has bothered to get in touch to ask for them either.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are policy renewal catchups in person, but these too have left some people feeling lacklustre. After one of the latest meetings, one shadow cabinet minister turned to another and asked: \u201cReally, what are we doing with this?\u201d It is a view shared by backbenchers who can\u2019t quite understand what is happening at a distance from them. \u201cDo they really exist?\u201d one asks.<\/p>\n