MANCHESTER, England — Kemi Badenoch’s first year as Conservative leader has been too “slow” at seizing the political agenda and made the party’s chances of an electoral comeback slimmer, a senior elected Tory argued Monday.

Ben Houchen said the Tory leader’s strategy of focusing on policy development and reducing the party’s profile after its election battering last year enabled the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which has consistently led the opinion polls.

Speaking at the POLITICO Pub at Conservative conference, the mayor of Tees Valley in northeast England said he “would have liked Kemi to have come out the box much quicker.” 

While acknowledging policy development is necessary, Houchen said Reform’s “wave of optimism” is “sidelining the Conservatives” and means “we don’t have the room and we don’t have the luxury of being able to take that time.” 

The Tees Valley mayor, who has been in post since 2017, praised Badenoch’s “punchy” approach ahead of conference, calling her “fiery” and “quite determined.”

But the three-time election winner said the public’s perception of the party was more important than policies: “Having specific policies three-and-a-half, four years out from the general election in broad terms is a good idea, but not necessarily the detailed specifics.”

Houchen also suggested the Conservatives now face an identity crisis about their voters — likened Reform’s surging popularity to the Brexit movement.

“It’s an idea that the system’s still broken,” he said. Voters, he argued, currently say to themselves: “I don’t care whether it breaks even more because it’s never worked for me so we might as well break that glass and give it a go.”