Soella Braverman outlined her vision of Britain’s Conservative Party based on patriotism, strong borders and pro-family policies, in a keynote address that Conservative MPs say marks the start of their party’s next leadership contest.
In a 4,000-word keynote address to the National Conservatism UK conference on Monday, the home secretary focused on her personal family history and political philosophy in what many colleagues described as a veiled leadership bid.
It came after Kemi Badnoch, the business secretary, last week fueled speculation about her ambitions after portraying herself as occupying a “pragmatic middle ground” when gossiping about the government’s decision to scale back her pledge to revise or scrap all EU regulations in force in Britain.
While there is little desire to replace Rishi Sunak before the next general election, which is expected next year, the party’s poor performance in local elections this month has had a crushing effect on the morale of many MPs. Attention is turning to what will happen if the party loses power, as a growing number of Tories expect.
Some moderate Tories, who argue that only parties from central Britain win elections, view Badenoch as a potential candidate for centre-right leadership.
Braverman is seen as running to become the candidate of the right in the party, which favors a tougher stance on immigration and social issues.
“They seem to be ‘putting themselves in a vulnerable position’,” said a former minister, hoping Rishi Sunak won’t stay forever. “I think people want their booths ready ahead of time, although there’s clearly a long way to go.”
In her speech, which was boycotted by protesters, Braverman outlined “what conservatism means to me,” highlighting the importance of opposing “political correctness” and identity politics.
She described how her Asian father came to England from Kenya in 1968 and her Asian mother arrived in Scotland from Mauritius shortly thereafter, emphasizing how they “embraced British values” and raised her to embody the same principles.
But she insisted, in a warning to her cabinet colleagues, that the government must “never lose sight of the importance of controlling legal immigration” along with its stated priority of tackling what it calls illegal immigration by “stopping the boats”. Official immigration statistics to be released later this month are expected to reveal record high numbers.
A former cabinet minister said: “Swella is right to say we have a huge problem with illegal immigration…but this is also an implicit and unspoken criticism of the prime minister as well. She clearly has ambitions to do more work than she is currently doing.”
While some MPs questioned whether the Home Secretary would have significant supporters in the House of Commons, others suggested her tough stance on immigration would appeal to party members, who usually play a key role in choosing leaders. One said, “Swila speaks the language of constituents and members on the subject of immigration.”
But Badenoch is currently the bookmakers’ favorite to take the reins of the party, having impressed the Tory grassroots when she ran in the first contest last summer.
She also won a striking endorsement last month from Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida who is widely tipped to fight Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nominee, for her efforts to stop what he called a “wake-up” of “the corruption of British society”.
She has a lot of fans for her stance on cultural policies such as opposition to gender-neutral toilets, although the Minister for Women and Equality herself disparages the phrase “woke up” as trivializing important issues.
After being asked last week about her future leadership aspirations, Badenoch told TalkTV she didn’t want to express interest in the event she decided not to run.
“What I do is not say anything, because I don’t lie and I don’t want to say anything that actually depends on what state of mind I’ll be in in the future. I’m just focused now on business, commerce and equality.”
Her straight-talking manner won her fans, but her directness annoyed others, who saw her as bordering on blunt. The Speaker of the House of Commons scolded her last week for the way she spoke to him.
Meanwhile, other Tory MPs issued a plea for unity in order to give the party its best chance of walking down the “narrow path” to victory laid out by Downing Street at the next election.
While one said that “there is no clear direction of where we are headed at the moment,” they added: “Any offers of leadership at this point are meaningless.”