Kemi Badenoch has been announced as the new Conservative Party leader, defeating Robert Jenrick by 56.6% to 43.4% in a ballot of party members. It was a widely expected result as she had led by a considerable margin in all polls, though the final result was closer than many surveys suggested. Badenoch now has the difficult job of reviving the Tory party and winning back the trust of millions of voters who abandoned the party over its record in Government, especially over immigration but also over taxation and public spending, fuelled in large part by its catastrophic response to Covid. Kemi won 53,806 votes to Jenrick’s 41,318. The number of legal ballots cast was 95,124 out of an electorate of 131,680 (there were 739 invalid ballots cast). The turnout was 72.8%. (Including invalid ballots the breakdown was 56.1% to 43.1% with 0.8% invalid.)
Some numbers from the Telegraph:
The total turnout of 72.8% is the lowest since the system was changed in 1998.
The turnout last time around in the contest between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak in summer 2022 was 82.2%.
At 56.6%, this is also the lowest vote share for a Tory leadership winner (Ms. Truss received 57.4%) and therefore the tightest race on record. …
The number of eligible electors this time round was 131,680. This is 23.6% lower than the 172,437 back in the summer 2022 contest.
Badenoch paid tribute to her rival, saying she and Jenrick “don’t actually disagree on very much” and that he has a “key part to play” for years to come.
I’d also like to pay a special tribute to Robert Jenrick who has fought a great campaign. Rob, we have all been impressed by your energy and your determination. You and I know that we don’t actually disagree on very much and I have no doubt that you have a key part to play in our party for many years to come. Thank you.
Addressing the task before her now, the new leader said:
The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is to hold this Labour Government to account. Our second is no less important, it is to prepare over the course of the next few years for government, to ensure that by the time of the election we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them.
A clear plan to change this country by changing the way that this government works. The Prime Minister is discovering all too late the perils of not having such a plan. That huge job begins today.
It will seek to involve all of our colleagues in Parliament, in the Scottish Parliament, the Sennedd, our friends in Northern Ireland, as well as councillors and party members. But this is not just about the Conservative Party. It is about the people we want to bring back to the Conservative Party. It is about the people we need to bring into the Conservative Party.
It is about what the Conservative Party needs to be in the next five, 10 and 20 years. Our party is critical to the success of our country but to be heard we have to be honest. Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip. The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party and our country the new start that they deserve. It is down to get down to business, it is time to renew. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Earlier, the Telegraph set the scene:
After the historic Tory wipeout in July, six MPs from all parts of the party threw their hats into the ring to sell their vision for the future of the party.
Among the issues that have dominated the debate include the party’s relationship with the insurgent Reform U.K. and whether the U.K. should leave the European Convention of Human Rights.
The Conservative Party Conference, designed to be a beauty parade for remaining hopefuls Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick shook up the race.
Stop Press: The Labour MP Dawn Butler heralded Kemi’s victory by sharing a social media post accusing Kemi Badenoch of representing “white supremacy in blackface”. The Telegraph has more.
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Here’s an idea. What if people feeling really ill just stayed at home until they felt better? Just like we do with the flu. No need for anyone to isolate, test or trace. This thing is endemic now.
After all if we are going to have to live with COVID then treat it as if was the flu.
Back to normal after a 2 minute announcement
You are sane, Paul M.
A rare thing these days.
And totally unheard-of in government.
LS reported on that study a few months ago which showed that about 50% of symptomatic people didn’t bother to isolate. This is the reason the virus is spreading, obviously. Not asymptomatic children…
Ah if only it were so simple. Many people out there don’t take sick leave even when they need it because they just can’t afford to lose out on 2+ weeks’ wages. These are the folks who have been manning the checkout desks and driving delivery vans in order to enable the govt’s agenda.
Yes…. You are so right ——- but they are already talking about the booster — I do feels hard to imagine things will ever be normal again – Big Pharma and Big tech funding have got the governments to do whatever they decide they want done and the Jab is worth Billions to them —
Like the teacher at our daughter’s school who came into work feeling unwell, gave a positive lateral flow test and the class have been told to self isolate. Don’t let anyone tell you teachers have common sense.
Or any consideration for the parents of pupils who maybe don’t have public sector jobs so need to work to pay the bills.
Ah, there we go. You don’t have to go home, you just have to submit to an invasive medical procedure every single day in order to prove your innocence.
Get used to it, kid, this is the New Normal.
Replacing one load of bollocks with another, almost as bad, as bad, worse, but bollocks nonetheless.
I know time is limited but would like to see more context and comment from the writers ATL, destroying the nonsense, for the benefit of casual readers or newbies or to hone arguments.
We’ve seen many “good news” articles that are not really good news at all. Just seems like the site is cheerleading for the govt’s weasel attempts to pretend we are coming out of coronamadness when we are doing no such thing
COVID WAS NOT AN EXCEPTIONAL EVENT REQUIRING OR JUSTIFYING EXCEPTIONAL MEASURES
Yes – I was disappointed to see Ioannides succumbing to the snake oil myths (see Round Up)
They will just replace this with a more pushy testing and tracing policy for kids.
These guys are merciless.
Another idea that was brainless in the first place. The idiot cabinet is the only entity needing a bubble – to shut them away from us.
FFS – We are being governed by people who don’t understand basic terminology like ‘infection’, ‘case’, ‘Covid’, and who still can’t grasp the basic uselessness of blanket testing or are able to read standard pandemic planning documents.
I expect the bubbles will be scrapped but replaced by something worse, like compulsory vaccination and/or testing.
*searches internet for books about home schooling*
Me and my wife are on standby to start homeschooling or boys if shit happens
Me too! Many other parents are planning the same – new community schools being planned across the country.
Parents needs to stand up to this madness, and simply refuse to send their kids to school. It will take everyone to do it, but that would solve it pretty quickly I would imagine
My daughters year have all been told to school from home for the next 2 weeks. Absolute joke.
Please a) stop advising we read ‘in full’ when the summary is enough to have us reaching for the sick bag and b) apply a bit of editorial judgement rather than simply relaying govt toss without scrutiny. We have the BBC for that, remember.
HEAR HEAR.
Toby used to take a robustly critical stance, which has now been replaced by wet lettuce.
To be fair, TY is extremely busy and commenting on every article is asking a lot.
Ideally he would have a much bigger team, with a budget to go with it
Scrap the school bubbles.
End of school year.
yeah.
As always, more excuses to prolong the agony from this Branch Covidian government.
They cannot give the experimental vaccine if they give up their emergency powers -that is what it is all about …..
Exactly! I don’t understand why more isn’t made of this point!
“Could be”
Pigs could fly if they had wings.
“Let’s just look at new models with dodgy rules to pile on the agony…because we can…and we know lots will not hesitate to comply. Isn’t this fun?” is what Williamson meant.
Gavin Williamson makes Matt Hancock look competent. Perhaps The Sun have some video of him.
This is really easy.
STOP TESTING CHILDREN UNDER 18.
Stop testing everyone
He wouldn’t even know where her arse was. Probably get it confused with her elbow.
200 lines for The Secretary of State for Education. Decline the following sentence.
I am a cretin.
You, Matt Hancock, are a cretin.
He, Boris Johnson, is a cretin.
We the Government are cretins.
You, SAGE, are cretins.
They, the Main Stream Media, are cretins.
This is one of the best comments I’ve read
love it 
They were all cretinous.
Love it
The depravity, the sheer, utter, merciless evil of these people is to me, beyond belief.
There are no excuses for what these SICK bastards are doing to children.
NONE.
NONE — it is EVIL
Prove first that all this testing isn’t harmful! Parents should refuse to allow these invasive repetitive tests until it can be proven not to harm the children’s mucous membranes, cilia etc. We know it harms their psyches.
They should, but they don’t. I’m a teacher and have to give the damn things out to my form every week. No one in my own household has ever been tested once; people don’t seem to understand that none of it is mandatory and are incapable of doing even the most basic research. I despair.
You say it’s not mandatory, yet you “have to” give the damned things out. So that part is ‘mandatory’.
They “could” be scrapped immediately if anyone in government had any integrity.
They do NOT know the meaning of the word.
Why cant Williamson pronounce Bubbles properly have you listened? its really odd
Is it because he’s a Fucking Cunt?
So, end the ridiculous bubbles 4 days before the summer holidays start? What a cunning plan from the Baldrick of British politics.
Some areas break up before the 19th. But this date has been pushed by the opposition i.e. the minority who are apparently on our side in the tory party.
The reason of course Boris/Stanley/Carrie/Klaus love the chaos in schools e.g. whole classes and year groups sent home for one (false) positive test is because they want to vaccinate kids. If they keep sending them home they think parents will more readily offer up their dim witted progeny for ‘vaccination’. Same with travel.
This morning, I should be caring for my youngest granddaughter while her sister, my other granddaughter, goes to school. I am not doing this however because someone in her class has “tested positive” so she has to stay at home until next Thursday.
Instead, I will come here to leave this comment from Christian Drosten (boo, hiss) who provided the first “PCR test” for the WHO to use last year and which was held up as the gold standard. The results of this test are used by governments to legitimise massive restrictions and take away our human rights.
As early as 2014, Drosten said about this PCR test method “The method is so sensitive that it can detect even a single molecule of the virus genome. If such a pathogen has, for example, spent one day on the nasal mucosa of a nurse, without her getting sick or noticing anything, she suddenly becomes a case of MERS. Where previously there were reports of people who were ‘sick to death’ (my inverted commas) the statistics now contain mildly ill people and people who are in fact perfectly healthy. This is how the explosion in the number of cases in Saudi Arabia could be explained. In addition, the media on the spot have inflated the matter incredibly. “
Exactly what has happened with the Corona virus.
This idiot Williamson seriously thinks that schoolchildren should be subjected to daily testing? What planet is he on? He should be sectioned for his and everyone else’s safety.
Especially after concerns have been raised over ethylene oxide – exposing children to it 5 days a week is simply a risk not worth taking, especially as children (who don’t have compromised immune systems) have a vanishingly small chance of dying from the virus (1-in-2.5 million or thereabouts, I believe) and are not vectors of the virus.
This is simply to make life so unpleasant that parents will agree to letting their children be jabbed – does anyone with critical thinking skills still believe this is about curtailing a virus?
When life becomes so unpleasant, why take it out on your children instead of those causing the misery?
Indeed – but the propaganda machine will urge parents on.
God, they’re so obsessed with their bloody virus – and selling tests and jabs.
Bubbles are utterly pointless – anyone with half a brain would know that – as many, many kids have siblings that span bubbles.
I asked my 11 year old grandson how many in his class of 32 have siblings in other bubbles. He estimated at least eight! Even he realises these ridiculous bubbles are pointless. Just “experts” pretending they are “doing something”.