Return of the nasty party? Badenoch walks tightrope with ‘punch down’ policies

Shadow minister says Tories have ‘outsourced our toxicity to Reform’, but others doubt leader can spark lasting revival The forthcoming Conservative conference will be, almost everyone in the party agrees, notably more upbeat and unified than last year. There is a similar consensus that Kemi Badenoch is doing well as party leader. That is, however, not the whole story. “The mood is better but the facts are still very poor,” one Conservative MP said. “We are still a distant third in the polls, and if there was an election tomorrow we would lose, and badly. That means the mood is overhyped.”