Shadow Cabinet League Table: Badenoch may not be popular with Starmer but she’s dominant with Conservatives

There was something of a coordinated hit job attempted by Labour’s loyalist outriders online yesterday.

Whether upset that Kemi Badenoch had described their backbenchers as ‘a sea of orcs and goons’ or that she simply wouldn’t meekly praise the Prime Minister for the inaction and weakness she felt he has shown over Iran, their instructions and mission were far more obvious than anything he might have given our military:

‘Tweet to denigrate her credentials and style as Leader of the Opposition’.

In Tolkein’s works Orcs “yammer and bleat” so if it was a bit of name calling in the midst of a rather serious session it also reflects their regular behaviour towards her when she stands up each Wednesday at PMQs.

The PM has taken weeks of battering by Badenoch and yesterday seemed surprised and horrified that the leader of the official opposition – that’s the one with an actual Shadow cabinet – does her job and opposes him, and does it bluntly.

It’s partly these performances, but also on the airwaves, and in speeches, that the days last year of her being a Leader stuck in the middle order of our Shadow Cabinet League Table are gone. Our Survey responders are clear, she’s leading from the front.

It’s not just that her former rival Robert Jenrick is no longer there. He placed consistently at the top in the middle of last year but didn’t reach the margin of lead she has now. Interesting that his replacement as Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy comes in second, on his debut to this league table.

That lead at 81.6 is 21.7 points higher than Timothy, a margin alone that’s more than 9 of her colleagues score in their own right. But the good news is that compared to ten months ago where Badenoch was on zero, now no member of the shadow team is on zero or in negative numbers, even those who’ve stayed regularly at the bottom. In May last year half of them were in negative territory.

Sir Mel Stride, who has taken flak from some members for his past close association with Rishi Sunak, and support for his government, has actually, if one looks back over time, been consistently in the top three for months. It’s clear to another set of members, those on our panel, that he’s not just doing a good job but he’s seen to be doing that.

Neil O’Brien, Richard Fuller all do creditably given they are relative newcomers to the team. And team is what Badenoch keeps trying to stress and demonstrate. She has a full shadow cabinet, and though she leads, and is quite clearly seen to by members, she likes to stress that this is a team sport, and she likes it that way.

There is of course still a problem, as this site is often at pains to point out. Whilst you cannot renew a brand with a leader who is unpopular in the party and the country, you cannot renew a brand with a popular leader in the party and the country alone. The work to translate the Badenoch bounce into a Tory bounce, is a grinding toil that will have to continue, however high she charts now.