David Davis MP writes for the Telegraph on why Kemi Badenoch should be the next Conservative Party leader

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As published in the Telegraph

The Conservative Party stands at the biggest crossroads in its modern history.

The country faces major challenges at home and abroad that need fresh thinking and bold ideas.

Choosing our next leader is not just about winning the next general election. It is about realising the task before that leader when they are successful: a person who can guide Britain through an unpredictable and complex world for the long-term.

Kemi Badenoch is that leader.

Kemi has a rare combination of intellect, common sense, and straight-talking. She understands, as Margaret Thatcher did, that conservatism is at its strongest when it speaks to the everyday concerns of people – offering solutions that are practical, not fashionable; enduring, not ephemeral.

Her background as an engineer gives her a problem-solving mindset and her tenure as a minister has shown she’s willing to apply Conservative principles in face of institutional hostility and activist backlash.

Over recent weeks as this contest has gathered pace, I have heard fellow Conservatives talk about whether this is a 1997 moment and whether we are doomed to spend a decade, or more, in Opposition. Some even appear to be relaxed about who becomes leader on the basis that, if it isn’t working, we can just swap them out again in a few years’ time.

Both of these assertions are fundamentally wrong.

I saw 1997. We may have been defeated by a similarly large margin but there is one crucial difference: back then, Labour was popular and it knew what it wanted to do.

Neither of those things are true today. Considering the disastrous missteps it has already made, there is the real possibility that we can return, if we make the right choices now.

But that means making some of the most difficult and clear-eyed decisions of any time in my four decades in the Conservative Party.

Nor do we have the luxury of just swapping leaders in and out as the seasons change.

We have just gone down to the worst election result in our history caused, at least in part, by going through four leaders in five years. This throwaway approach to a serious job has to end.

We will never re-establish trust with the British people again if they think we are only ever a few steps away from the latest decapitation of our figurehead.

We also need to realise that to stand any chance of serving the public again we need to use these four years to develop and execute a serious plan. There is not a moment to waste.

No voting for friends
So, here’s the blunt truth: no voting for friends. No supporting the person who we want to go for a drink with. No being swayed by the lobby about the amount of clapping after one speech. No simplistic answers to complex questions. No wishing away the hard decisions our party will need to make to stand even a remote chance to return. The choices we make in the next four days will determine whether we have a chance in the next four years.

This is not 1997 because of the real challenges we face today. Back then, the world appeared to be moving in our direction as liberal democracy took root across the globe and capitalism brought growing wealth and prosperity to the West.

Today, nothing could be further from the truth. We live in the most challenging and dangerous world in a generation. A volatile world with a re-ordering of power going on before our eyes overseas.

The regression of free trade and over-exposure to global supply chains could leave us in a future vise of debt, pressured public services and community tensions at home.

Instead, we must look to twenty years earlier if we want a useful comparison with the challenge before us today. It isn’t 1997 that can teach us a lesson but, instead, 1975.

Then, the Conservative Party made a choice to break with the past, to return to first principles and to build a real platform for government once again. Four years later, in 1979, it paid off with the election of a Conservative government that would transform our country forever.

Fifty years ago, barely out of university and as the chairman of the Federation of Students, I saw a similar time and witnessed the foundations of that success emerge with the election of Thatcher.

Today, we have a similar choice in front of us: a new start or more of the same. That is exactly why I am supporting Kemi. More than anything, we must have a leader who understands the urgency of the time we are in. In her conference speech, she delivered not just a rallying cry for our party but laid out a vision for a revitalised Britain.

A Britain that is confident in its identity, ambitious in its aspirations, and resolute in its determination to tackle the complex challenges it faces whether that’s the housing crisis, the future of our welfare state, or our role on the global stage.

A methodical root-and-branch analysis of how we actually deliver real conservatism, which gives people hope and ladders, for the future.

My party has a big week ahead. The choices it makes will reverberate over the years to come. No second chances. No ducking the gravity of the moment.

No downplaying the significance of now. Fifty years in politics have taught me when politics needs a fresh start.

So, the question for my party now is: do we really, truly want to win in four years’ time? If we do, in our hearts, we know what we must do.