With nominations now closed, the final set of candidates has been set, with Badenoch going up against fellow MPs James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, and Tom Tugendhat. Four of them will move on to the second round in September, with a party vote set to take place by October 31, according to the BBC. On November 2, the new leader will be named.
"If I have the privilege to serve, we will speak the truth again," Badenoch said in an op-ed for the Times. "That is why today my campaign is launching with an explicit focus on renewing our party for 2030 ... We will renew by starting from first principles: we can't control immigration until we re-confirm our belief in the nation state and the sovereign duty it has, above all else, to serve its own citizens."
On her campaign website, Badenoch explained that those first principles included responsibility, nationhood, and honesty, among others. "We accept that government should only do so much and that personal responsibility and meritocracy are the foundations of the future success of our country," she wrote. "We are proud of our history and reject attempts to force us into identity groups; we know we will build a stronger society based on our shared values. We will not talk right and govern left."
In 2023, the then-Minister for Women and Equalities claimed that transgenderism was "really a healthcare issue" that has been "hijacked by lots of different people for their own agendas." Earlier this year, she expressed a desire to ensure women had spaces of their own.
"Whether it is rapists being housed in women's prisons, or instances of men playing in women's sports where they have an unfair advantage, it is clear that public authorities and regulatory bodies are confused about what the law says on sex and gender and when to act – often for fear of being accused of transphobia, or not being inclusive," she declared, per the Guardian. "If we form a government after the election, we will clarify that sex in the law means biological sex and not new, redefined meanings of the word. The protection of women and girls' spaces is too important to allow the confusion to continue."
