What Kemi really brings to the Party

Research shows that you need a certain perspective to turn organisations around; you need to appreciate complexity and be able to cope with and manage your way around complexity.

The Conservative Party is undoubtably a turnaround project.

I resigned as Chairman of Surrey Heath Conservative Association following Michael Gove’s decision not to stand, and CCHQ’s refusal to allow our local members to consider a local candidate.

There are currently four leadership candidates. Three offer simple solutions:

  • Serve.Lead.Act
  • Unite under Conservative values
  • Change.Win.Deliver

In South Kensington Friday before last, I heard Kemi Badenoch gave some of her thoughts on the challenges facing not just the turnaround of the Conservative Party, but the turnaround of the UK.

Some perspectives stood out:

  • Diagnosis needs to predicate change. You can’t fix something if you don’t understand the problem. This is the Engineer in Kemi. As an Engineer, I agree. Trying to spin or flannel an answer without understanding the problem is marketing or PR. Sustainable solutions can only be created from first understanding the facts and the truth. Taking people with you depends on having the courage to speak those truths.
  • Need to take responsibility. To rebuild trust, you need to apologise first for what you got wrong. This includes the MP candidate selection process. We need the right people on the list in the first place, we need MPs with sufficient perspective to see the wood for the trees, to see beyond tomorrow’s decisions. Responsibility for selecting an MP candidate needs to be given to Local Association members, and taken away from a self-serving clique centred in CCHQ. Mayoral candidates need a head-hunting approach.
  • Our Country’s productivity needs to be addressed. A risk averse culture has turned too many of our creators, entrepreneurs, manufacturers, into bureaucrats. We have vast swathes of employees both public and private sector engaged in regulation and contractors paid to review regulation and compliance with regulation. All of this pulls productivity down and no-one else is saying it.
  • National identity is critical. Conservative Party unity alone will not fix this. In Nigeria, the population of 230 million all look the same, but there are 500 different languages, hundreds of different ethnic groups. It isn’t what we look like that divides us. We need strong national identity to unite us as a Country.

It’s clear that the difference between Kemi and the other candidates is the ability to have these perspectives. This ability is essential to turning around the Conservative Party.

I think that members see Kemi is head and shoulders above the other candidates.

The real challenge for the Conservative Party leadership election is whether the MPs are able to see this difference between the candidates.

To give the members a shortlist that allows them to choose Kemi to turn around the Conservative Party, then the Country.

Stuart Black

(Ex) Chairman, Surrey Heath Conservative Association

23 Seeptember 2024