Kemi Badenoch has rediscovered Tories’ political mojo

Going into her first party conference as leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch faced two challenges. First, to save her faltering leadership, and second, on her own behalf and that of her party, to begin earning the right to be listened to by the British people.

On both counts, she acquitted herself well. She is safe, for now — and her surprise announcement that her government would abolish stamp duty was more than sufficiently bold to command public attention, according to The Independent.

As with Sir Keir Starmer the previous week, she saw off a nascent leadership challenge and re-established her authority, albeit contingent on some sign of further progress in next May’s rounds of elections in Scotland, Wales, London and local authorities. Whether the country likes it or not, it is still possible that by this time next year it will have a new prime minister and a new leader of the opposition.

Prickly in media interviews, unreliable at Prime Minister’s Questions and prone to an inexplicable overconfidence that makes her occasional gaffes even worse, she is a good platform performer, and certainly no worse than her perennial stalker Robert Jenrick, who — with his hand stuck up a full-bottomed legal wig — gave a bizarre impression of a music hall ventriloquist the previous day.

Ms Badenoch’s audience heard a little more about her backstory and, despite the constant murmurings, seemed to show her some affection, genuine or not, when she asked them to “stand with me”.

For the Conservatives, a party still reeling from its historic defeat at the general election last year, followed by a further merciless battering by Nigel Farage and Reform UK, it was all anyone could do. In case they had any doubt about the matter, Ms Badenoch told them that people “are still angry with us”.

She certainly gave the activists what they were looking for, including well-turned quips. Stamp duty is indeed – as experts who are far from sympathetic to the Tories agree – a “bad tax”, as she put it. It gums up the property market and, under George Osborne’s time as (Conservative) chancellor, it began to morph into an extremely flawed, almost random wealth tax. It discourages first-time buyers so much that it has had to be periodically slashed, in theatrical fashion, by Mr Osborne’s successors; the thresholds produce anomalies, and it prevents older people from downsizing and freeing up family homes.

In terms of the economic impact more broadly, it hinders mobility of labour and, thus, a more dynamic economy and social mobility. Though far from the most formidable barrier to creating a “property owning democracy”, it has become deeply resented. In pledging to get rid of it, Ms Badenoch has hit upon a measure that is both in tune with the “aspirational” instincts of the Tories’ traditional constituency, and which reminds her party of one of its great historical missions.

Like the plan by the shadow chancellor, Sir Mel Stride, to subsidise first-time buyers with a £5,000 national insurance rebate, the Conservatives are once again fastening onto the upwardly mobile youth vote — which, given their badly ageing base, shows that they may have rediscovered their political mojo.

Ms Badenoch revealed her vote-winner with a certain amount of playful teasing during her peroration, which made the announcement even more dramatic. It was probably the best news the Tories have had since before the pandemic. No wonder it went down well.

Stamp duty was once rather perfunctory, even quaint during the era of (relatively) affordable housing; nowadays, it raises about £14bn — a considerable sum — and is unaffordable even for the middle classes. Ms Badenoch wants to retain it for second and rental homes, which would reduce the cost of abolishing it, and it seems the move would be phased in.