I’m going to get better as Tory leader

Kemi Badenoch has insisted she is “going to get better” as Conservative leader, saying she is not “shy about self-criticism”.

It comes after shadow chancellor Mel Stride defended his boss earlier this week following criticism of her performances at Prime Minister’s Questions, saying she would improve.

Badenoch told the BBC: “You don’t want people to be the very best they’re going to be on day one.”

The interview followed a speech by Badenoch where she launched a commission to examine whether the UK should withdraw from a series of international agreements in order to tackle illegal migration and allow foreign criminals to be deported more easily.

Since last summer’s general election, when the Conservatives suffered their worst defeat in the party’s parliamentary history, support for the party has slumped further and they have been overtaken by Reform UK in the polls.

The Tories also suffered a disastrous set of local election results last month, losing hundreds of council seats to Nigel Farage’s party.

Meanwhile, there has been criticism of Badenoch’s performance against Sir Keir Starmer in Prime Minister’s Questions and her decision to take time to work out policy positions on key issues.

Asked about Sir Mel’s comment that she would get better, Badenoch told the BBC: “The people who have done this job before have all told me that the first day is not what the last day is going to be like.

“That every week is different, every week you’re learning.

“And that’s what you want, you want people who are going to get better.”

Badenoch, who became Tory leader in November, admitted her party had “made some mistakes” and had “hit rock bottom” at the last general election.

She said she was changing the party but “it’s not going to happen overnight” – and she insisted she would definitely lead it into the next general election in four years time.

Earlier this week, Sir Mel distanced the party from former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s mini-budget, saying in a speech that it had damaged their economic credibility.

The £45bn package of tax cuts funded by borrowing sparked turmoil on financial markets and led to Truss resigning after just 45 days in office.

Asked why she did not make a decisive break with Truss by throwing her out of the party, a smiling Badenoch said she did not know whether the former PM was still a member.

“Is she still in the party?” she asked, insisting that she was not interested in “any particular individual” but about how to get the country “back on track”.

A spokesman for Truss, who lost her seat in last year’s general election, confirmed she was still a Conservative Party member.

In a speech earlier, Badenoch sought to flesh out her party’s approach to tackling illegal immigration.

She launched a commission, which will be led by Tory peer and former justice minister Lord Wolfson, to look at the potential consequences of leaving international treaties including the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and whether this could help the government take back control of the asylum system.

The ECHR, which was established in 1950, sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries and is a central part of UK human rights law.

However, Badenoch said it had become a “sword used to attack democratic decisions” and to halt attempts to deport illegal migrants and foreign criminals.

The Tory leader said she now believed the UK “will likely need to leave” the ECHR “because I am yet to see a clear and coherent way to fix this within our current legal structures”.

But she said she would not commit to this without “a clear plan” and “a full understanding of all the consequences”.

The commission is due to report back at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in the autumn.

If the commission concludes it is not necessary to leave the ECHR to achieve her aims, including controlling immigration and removing foreign criminals from the UK, Badenoch suggested she would abide by this.

“If there is a way to fix that without leaving the ECHR…. then that’s great because my objection is not about the ECHR so much as it is the problems we’re trying to solve,” she said.

Whether to leave the ECHR has been a divisive issue for the Conservative Party.

During last year’s leadership contest Badenoch argued leaving the treaty would not be a “silver bullet” for tackling immigration, while her rival Robert Jenrick, now shadow justice secretary, said the party would “die” unless it left.

However, since becoming Tory leader, Badenoch has hardened her stance.

Last month, the government said it would bring forward legislation to make clear Parliament needs to be able to control the UK’s borders and to clarify how aspects of the ECHR should apply in immigration cases.

A Labour spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch’s review is nothing more than a desperate attempt to appease Robert Jenrick and Nigel Farage’s Reform Party.

“If she’s so certain in her approach, why didn’t the Conservatives make these changes when they had the chance in government, rather than simply booting them into the long grass.”