Why Ford Motors inspires Badenoch’s Tory blueprint

At the end of 2008, Ford Motor Company was only months from running out of cash. It had a lackluster product lineup and a dys­functional culture of infighting, backstabbing, and excuses. Sound familiar? Kemi Badenoch has been reading about how under the leadership of a bold new CEO, Alan Mulally, the company came back from the brink and returned it to one of the world’s most successful carmakers.

That, she has told her MPs, is inspiring her model for the Conservative Party.

After another strong outing at PMQs – skewering Sir Keir Starmer for “stuffing government with paedophile apologists” – Badenoch headed to her office for lunch. Unusually for her, one that included sandwiches (though she opted for a ham and cheese croissant). She has been hosting a series of these meetings with her MPs, and this week it was the first of two sessions with members of the 2024 intake.

Badenoch explained that Mulally’s insight at Ford Motors was realising the company had become distracted by its luxury brands like Aston Martin, rather than focusing on Ford itself and what it originally did so well. Her own lesson was similar: invest in the party’s “stakeholder products” — the core Tory vote, what it wants, and what the Conservatives can credibly offer.

And she wants a “fresh” Conservative Party to do so, with a Tory insider saying “Kemi told them she wanted these new MPs to be the future face of the Tory party”. It went down well with the group, some of whom have recently been getting their first outings at the despatch box like Peter Fortune.

He understood Badenoch’s Ford comparison, I’m told, likening the Conservative Party to a failing business: first stop the crisis, then stabilise, and then rebuild. Right now, he suggested, the party is still in the early stages. 

As discussion ranged around the Leader of the Opposition’s office, MPs aired familiar frustrations and enecuragements. John Cooper urged the party to “get onto talking about the economy” as the route back to power, while still addressing the wound of immigration. Joe Robertson argued for a “more optimistic tone in how the party communicates” and “not just criticising the government”. Inevitably, the conversation drifted to the question that always arises when talk turns to renewal and making Badenoch’s New Conservatives: what to do about the past.

Both Lewis Cocking and Greg Stafford, I’m told, commented about the shadow cabinet. There were “too many faces reminding people of the last government”, and it being “frankly not very good”, with some not pulling their weight.

They are not alone. One LOTO figure told me: “Real surgery is needed at the top of the shadow cabinet – we’re talking the three great offices of state: Treasury, Foreign and Home.” That would mean shadow chancellor Mel Stride, shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel and shadow home secretary Chris Philp.

A senior Tory agrees in principle but not without caveats. “Every change has a cost,” they said. “What do you offer Mel and Priti? They’re already knighted and with a damehood. The Lords is an option, but that’s a way off.” One shadow cabinet member confided: “It needs to happen, though I fear it won’t any time soon.” Another said movement was inevitable, but only once Badenoch herself reaches that conclusion.

The argument for change is the freshness Badenoch has begun championing. “In the top jobs,” one shadow minister says, “we shouldn’t be so tainted by the past.” Patel, in particular, attracts criticism. Her association with the ‘Boriswave’ – an issue raised at this week’s lunch – and her robust defence of that record in a disastrous interview with Harry Cole are cited as reasons she should move on.

But she is loyal, and loyalty counts. “Kemi is very loyal and appreciates it,” one insider says. Another shadow cabinet colleague tells me they are “very keen for Tom Tugendhat to come into the fold,” and I’m told discussions have taken place, and may yet happen in the future.

When it comes to Philp those around him acknowledge “improvement in the job”, an “eagerness to get the message out”, and a grasp of deteialed Home Office legisaltion. Other colleagues say that same eagerness “comes across as too intense” and “doesn’t land well” with the public.

“The Home Office is such a vulnerability for Labour that we need our absolute top performer there,” one insider says. “Unfortunately, he probably isn’t.”

Stride, meanwhile, has two camps of defenders and detractors. Supporters describe him as offering “steadiness and reassurance” on the economy. Critics complain he lacks “punch” and “fight”. Polling has the Conservatives once again trusted most on the economy, which his allies say reflects his steady approach and resistance to gimmicks. “He has rare experience of both business and the Treasury,” one Tory notes. “That’s a big risk to give up.” Those less convinced argue he is “not dynamic enough” of a choice and “doesn’t cut through”.

Stride hosted a dinner for MPs at his London home on Tuesday, shoes removed at the front door, lubricated by wine and Vesper martinis “that would kill a horse”. Some attendees wondered whether it was an exercise in wooing. One guest told me: “I suspect Mel was doing a bit of self-promotion given rumours about a reshuffle.” But I understand the dinner was arranged weeks ago, part of a tradition he has maintained since 2011.

A Tory source, however, pours water on the suggestion of any movement: “There isn’t a reshuffle, let’s put it to bed. It is not going on, the idea is nonsense. It’s just not going to happen. Kemi is very happy with her top team.” They pointed to Badenoch’s leadership, new policies, and Nick Timothy’s arrival in the shadow cabinet as evidence of renewal. “Kemi has massively changed the party under her new leadership,” they added.

Both Stride and Philp are regularly in the top three of ConservativeHome’s members’ poll, with them coming second and third respectively at last publication.

Even at last night’s Winter Ball at The Peninsula hotel, Badenoch spoke warmly of “the team”, namechecking Stride and Helen Whately on welfare savings, and praising Claire Coutinho and Andrew Bowie for fighting for British jobs in energy.

Still, the question remains: how to balance experience with renewal. For a leader promising a fresh start, there is a sense that too much of the old guard lingers at the top. As one attendee at Badenoch’s lunch put it: “The mood is different. Things feel positive. But we need to look like we’re renewing – not just talk about it.”

Another framed it more philosophically: “Fresh is what Conservatives should always be. Things should be better tomorrow than they are today. That’s the Tory way.”

Whether Badenoch can pull off a Ford-style turnaround – rescuing and rebranding a damaged political entity – is the real test of her leadership.