Badenoch closes Tory conference with unity pitch amid poor polling
Kemi Badenoch closed the Conservative conference by saying the party must learn from its mistakes and admitting it has not yet won enough public support, with poor polling and Reform UK pressure still looming.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
The Conservative Party conference has ended in Birmingham with Kemi Badenoch using her closing speech to present a united and no-nonsense shadow cabinet. She said her team included people who had careers outside Westminster and knew how to get things done. She also acknowledged that the public were not yet backing the party in big enough numbers. She said the Conservatives needed to learn from their mistakes to regain people's trust.
The upbeat mood at the conference was notable given the party's poor polling. Conservative MPs and activists were more positive than they were last year. Much of that is because MPs feel Badenoch is doing a pretty good job. Polling by More in Common over the last 20 months suggests she has overtaken her party. Her allies argue that the Tories win when their leader is ahead of the party in the polls, and that the reverse is true when the leader drags behind.
But the internal mood does not match the wider polling picture. The Conservatives are performing worse, and in some cases much worse, than they did at the 2024 general election, which was a catastrophic defeat. Even among voters who say Badenoch is doing a good job, only about a third say they would vote for her if a general election were held tomorrow. Analysts say a leader being ahead of the party is not enough on its own to lift the party's vote share.
The Conservative brand remains negative on many issues. Only just over half of people who voted Conservative in 2024 see Badenoch as the best prime minister. That number would need to be much higher if she is to win back voters the party has lost in opposition. It is rare for a party to lose support while in opposition. The Tories are trying to recover both from their 2024 defeat and from further losses since then.
The party also faces continued pressure from Reform UK on its right flank. That threat was one reason the conference mood was watched closely. Despite the positive atmosphere, the Tories still have a long way to go before their polling position improves.
The conference took place against a wider political backdrop in which Labour is also polling below its 2024 winning position. That has fuelled speculation about the timing of the next general election. Some Labour figures have discussed an autumn 2028 election, while others have argued for going earlier or later. For the Conservatives, however, the immediate challenge remains their own recovery and the competition on the right.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported by a few · 2 channels | |||
| A YouGov poll placed the Conservatives at around 20%. | Not reported by Channel 4 | Reported by ITV | Reported by Sky News |
| Kemi Badenoch said the Conservatives would not win a snap election outright if one were called at that time. | Not reported by ITV | Reported by Sky News | |
| Only on one channel | |||
| In her conference speech, Kemi Badenoch described her shadow cabinet as united and no-nonsense, with members who had careers outside Westminster and knew how to get things done. | Not reported by ITV | Not reported by Sky News | |
| Kemi Badenoch is reported to be significantly more popular than the Conservative Party as a whole. | Not reported by Channel 4 | Reported by ITV | Not reported by Sky News |
| Only about a third of voters who think Kemi Badenoch is doing a good job said they would vote for her in a general election. | Not reported by Channel 4 | Not reported by Sky News | |
| The Conservatives are polling worse than at the 2024 general election, with reports also describing poor polling. | Not reported by Channel 4 | Not reported by Sky News | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
It focused on the mood at the Conservative conference, testing upbeat claims against polling data and highlighting the Reform UK threat on the right. It also widened out to Labour conference dynamics and other political stories, with an analytical and somewhat sceptical tone.
- “despite the fact that they have pretty poor polling, despite the fact that this is Burnham bounce and despite the fact that they still have the threat of Reform on their right flank, the Tories are actually pretty upbeat”
- “even among those voters who say that Badenoch is doing a good job, only a third say that they'd vote for her if there was a general election tomorrow”
- “It's not enough. And, you know, people tend in politics, I think, to look at the leader and think, well, that's everything.”
It led with Badenoch's closing conference speech, highlighting her description of the shadow cabinet and her admission that the party has not yet won enough public support. It did not mention Reform UK or specific polling figures. The tone was brief and straight news.
- “Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has described her shadow cabinet as united and no-nonsense.”
- “She acknowledged that the public were not yet backing the party in big enough numbers and said that it needed to learn from its mistakes to regain people's trust.”
- “In a speech on the closing day of the party's conference, she said that they were people who'd had careers outside Westminster who knew how to get stuff done.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.