Why Ford Motors inspires Badenoch’s Tory blueprint
This affects the entire country.
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, …
This affects the entire country.
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, …
Why Ford Motors inspires Badenoch’s Tory blueprint
This affects the entire country.
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, …
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