Kemi Badenoch, one of the candidates for the Conservative leadership, has been criticised by fellow Tories for adopting a “submarine” strategy by keeping a low national profile during the riots that have spread across England over the past week.
While rivals James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Mel Stride have been appearing across broadcast TV channels and social media, Badenoch has not been prominent during the unrest.
She has posted several times on X since the riots began, including once in opposition to the Gender Recognition Act, but none of them address the violence directly.
Badenoch’s main comment on the unrest was made in an interview in the Telegraph last Friday, in which she made an argument that there had not been enough integration in the UK.
She said: “You look at all the tension that we’ve been seeing in the country over the last few days in Southport and Hartlepool, everybody’s quiet. They don’t want to upset the cultural establishment that wants to pretend that nothing is going on.
“They should be saying that we need a clearer strategy on integration, which we don’t have at the moment. Instead, we just pretend that everything is fine and it’s a few bad apples, which is sometimes the case. But if you want to have a successful multiracial country, you need to make an effort to do that. You can’t just pretend that there are no tensions. And we’ve been seeing this not just between ethnic minorities and white British people, but it’s even between ethnic minorities. This is not normal.”
Since then, Badenoch has not commented nationally on incidents such as the attack on a hotel of asylum seekers in Rotherham, but she posted on X on Wednesday saying she was in Middlesbrough talking to Conservative grassroots members.
Cleverly has said the riots are “the actions of people … responding to disinformation online” and “motivated by racism”, and that the attacks on mosques and hotels were “clearly driven by racism and should be condemned unequivocally right across the board”.
Patel has said the riots were “thuggery, violence, racism” and that she would not feel safe in some of the areas and communities where this has been seen. Jenrick has condemned “disgraceful conduct by thugs and racists” but has also been criticised by the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, for stirring up tensions after suggesting those who shout “Allahu Akbar” on the street should be arrested.
One Conservative colleague said of Badenoch that she was “like a submarine” most of the time, but just occasionally “coming up to cause chaos – which works in cabinet, but doesn’t work in a leader”. Another senior Tory said Badenoch appeared to be “missing in action” while letting other Conservatives take the lead on the party’s response to the riots, despite her role as shadow communities secretary.
The overall Conservative response to the rioting has not been led by Rishi Sunak, who appears to be absent from the political scene this week. The leader of the opposition has not made an intervention since Sunday, when he posted on X: “The shocking scenes we’re seeing on the streets of Britain have nothing to do with the tragedy in Southport. This is violent, criminal behaviour that has no place in our society.” His apparent absence has prompted the ConservativeHome website to ask: where is Sunak?
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Badenoch has long been considered the frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest but Jenrick, a former immigration minister, has been catching her up, while Patel is also gaining ground.
A poll of Tory members for the Popular Conservatives group on Thursday found Jenrick on 24.2%, Badenoch on 23.4% and Patel on 21% – the clear frontrunners out of a field of six. It put Cleverly on 5%, Tom Tugendhat at 3% and Stride on 2%, while 20% of the almost 500 members surveyed were undecided.
The bookmaker Coral said on Thursday that Jenrick’s odds had drifted in the last 24 hours, with Badenoch the favourite at 7-4.
Asked for a response to comments made by fellow Conservatives saying she had taken a “submarine” approach to the contest, an ally of Badenoch said: “The Guardian has spent the last two decades promoting division and claiming there was two-tier policing against minority communities, so this story, while not unsurprising, is a new low for them in their obsession with Kemi.
“The Tory leadership race will not be determined by who does the most media, but who has the best vision for the future of the Conservative party. Kemi has been touring across the UK this week meeting members, listening to their views on the renewal of our party, and she will continue to do so regardless of these smears.”