Kemi Badenoch has disclosed the advice she received from one of her predecessors as Conservative leader, David Cameron, on how to conduct herself at prime minister’s questions.
It was reported earlier this month that Lord Cameron, who was known to enjoy the adversarial exchanges at PMQs from 2005-2016, had worked with Badenoch to help her approach the Wednesday commons sessions.
Asked to reveal the coaching points offered to her by the former prime minister, Badenoch said Cameron “helped me once a few months ago.”
She went on to defend her approach to PMQs and rubbished the advice offered to her by individuals who have never “done it”.
Badenoch told Times Radio: “A lot of people give me advice about prime minister’s questions — none of them have ever done it.
“The best advice came from the two people [former Tory leaders Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Cameron] who did it, and what they said was that it’s not about winning the session.
“Lots of people will encourage you to do things just to win in the moment, but it is about long-term credibility, and that’s one of the things that I think is actually very important.”
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Referring to Cameron’s advice, Badenoch commented: “He said that I was very analytical and went into a lot of detail, but most people wouldn’t understand or wouldn’t be able to follow it, so I sort of changed a little bit of that approach. So it was very good advice.
“And Iain Duncan Smith also gave excellent advice as well. He said it was also about people being able to follow the argument which is quite interesting.
“But again, they’re the ones who’ve done it before. I often get loads of suggestions, most of which are terrible.”
She added: “[I have been told] to be more abusive, call [Keir Starmer] a liar on the floor of the House. That’s what people want to hear. All sorts of stuff that’s actually quite silly.”
Badenoch went on to suggest that the prime minister refers to her in a “patronising” tone at PMQs.
Asked about Starmer’s approach, the Conservative leader said: “I have a really thick skin. I think that that’s what he feels he needs to do.
“If being patronising was something that bothered me, I wouldn’t be leader of the opposition today. But I think it is very obvious that he is somebody who thinks that he shouldn’t be questioned.
“It looks like he’s being tortured at PMQs — he doesn’t answer questions.
“I mean, say what you liked about Rishi Sunak, but he always had an answer. I see a man who doesn’t really have answers, and so he tries to get away from that by just being disparaging about the person across the despatch box. And so I’m now responding in kind.”
Last week’s session of PMQs was dominated by the supreme court’s ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.
Badenoch repeatedly referenced the prime minister’s previous comments on the debate and, in a personal back-and-forth, called out the treatment of former Labour MP Rosie Duffield.
Duffield, now an independent MP, left Labour last year after recurrent battles with the party leadership.
Badenoch said: “The thing I thought was really bad last week, was the way he treated Rosie Duffield. At least I can speak at the despatch box. I can fend for myself — she didn’t have a voice. She wasn’t called by the speaker, and so I made sure that I defended her after she’d been hounded out of her party.”
The Tory leader added: “He didn’t even acknowledge her existence or her presence. I think that was awful.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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