Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have faced off for what could be the only televised clash of the Conservative leadership contest. It was not actually a debate: the pair took it in turns to take questions from party members and GB News viewers. Below are some of the things we learned.
Badenoch was the winner – at least, the audience thought so
Judging the winner of such events is an imprecise business, with the additional caveat that the impression gained by those inside the studio might not be the same as viewers watching on TV. But Badenoch definitely got a better reception. Jenrick won regular and polite applause for his well-rehearsed, policy-heavy pitch. The response to Badenoch, however, seemed louder and more frequent. A show of hands at the end for who people thought did better looked like a roughly 75%-25% win for Badenoch.
This was policies versus vision
The two hopefuls took very different approaches. For Jenrick it was about specific policies – he wants to cap immigration to the tens of thousands, leave the European convention on human rights, build denser cities and cut taxes. For Badenoch, the issue was to “fix the system that is broken” and renew the party and the country. This does not involve, she argued, “throwing out lots of policies” – a clear reference to Jenrick’s approach.
The format kept things tame
While internal party leadership debates can often be more brutal than general elections, the format of the event kept things tame. The contenders were not on stage at the same time, except at the start, and the audience of Tory members – almost all of whom seemed to be from London – mainly asked broad, unchallenging questions, allowing Badenoch and Jenrick to slip into familiar pitches. The GB News host, Christopher Hope, did try to liven things up with a quickfire round of questions such as whether either of them had ever taken drugs – they had not – but this failed to raise the temperature.
Christopher Chope escaped with a mild kicking
The most notable element of the contest before the debate on Thursday was the comments by the veteran Tory MP Christopher Chope, who said he could not support Badenoch as she is “preoccupied with her own children”. Asked what she might say to Chope when she next sees him, Badenoch, who like Jenrick has three school-age children, replied only: “I might remind him that it isn’t always women who have parental responsibilities.”
Jenrick is not a Liz Truss fan
During his hour in the spotlight, Jenrick was studiously polite, declining when asked to name Badenoch’s biggest weakness. “I’m not going to say that – I really like Kemi,” he said. Jenrick attempted the same answer when asked to list his favourite Tory PM of the past 14 years, saying: “I’m a father of three daughters. I know you don’t pick favourites.” But asked if it might be Liz Truss, he finally cracked: “It wouldn’t be Liz, I have to say. The others have good qualities.”