What will be the top issues facing Kemi Badenoch as leader of the Conservatives?

Kemi Badenoch was declared the caller Conservative Party person connected Saturday morning, bringing an extremity to the four-month-long contest.

Ms Badenoch volition beryllium astatine the helm arsenic the enactment tries to retrieve successful the aftermath of the July wide predetermination result, but what are going to beryllium the contiguous issues facing the Tories?

Ms Badenoch becomes the Tory party’s 4th person since the summertime of 2022.

Tory MPs person had nationalist disagreements and squabbles successful caller years implicit topics from migration to integrity, and 1 Tory parliamentarian has said bringing the enactment backmost unneurotic is the adjacent leader’s fig 1 task.

Conservative adjacent and elections commentator, Lord Robert Hayward, told the PA quality bureau that “the biggest azygous situation is to get the enactment to halt arguing with each other”.

“It’s casual to accidental we’re going for unity, but I’m acrophobic implicit the past 8 years … nationalist disagreement has go endemic for ample sections of the parliamentary party,” helium explained.

However, portion helium says it whitethorn beryllium a “difficult” job, Lord Hayward believes that the “one large asset” the caller person has got erstwhile it comes to this is that it is Labour successful government.

He explained: “The Labour Government is present attracting each the attraction and is facing each sorts of difficulties.”

He added: “The absorption – though overmuch diminished – has got thing to occurrence astatine which is overmuch easier than firing astatine each other.”

The contented of migration and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is 1 that could bring enactment unity backmost to centre signifier and has been a much-discussed taxable during the campaign.

Mr Jenrick, a erstwhile migration curate who discontinue Rishi Sunak’s authorities past twelvemonth amid a disagreement implicit the Rwanda plan, had called to permission the ECHR and said the enactment should “get serious” connected migration.

Ms Badenoch has said that focussing connected the ECHR risks shutting “the speech that we request to person with the full country” connected immigration, and has not gone arsenic acold arsenic to accidental she would discontinue the statement completely, penning successful The Daily Telegraph successful September that “if necessary” the UK should permission “international frameworks similar the ECHR”.

Adam Drummond, the caput of governmental and societal probe astatine pollster Opinium, said of the caller leader, “it’s hard to spot them not talking astir migration a lot”.

He told the PA quality bureau that the contented has “crept up” the priorities among radical who mean connected voting for the Conservatives oregon Reform UK, but that talking astir it risks talking up the “salience” of a cardinal contented for Reform.

“Like I said, I don’t deliberation they’ll beryllium capable to hazard the temptation to bash that, but I don’t deliberation they should,” Mr Drummond said.

Focussing connected the system could supply a “viable” way backmost to powerfulness for the Conservatives, Mr Drummond suggested.

“Their temptation is going to beryllium to absorption a batch connected migration but, really, they should beryllium talking astir the economy,” helium said.

Responding to Rachel Reeves’ archetypal Budget connected Wednesday, Ms Badenoch told LBC that “this is not a maturation Budget”.

“Labour has nary plan, they conscionable privation to blasted the Conservatives,” she told the vigor station.

Mr Drummond said that “given the economical situation” determination could beryllium a concern wherever “things bash travel unstuck for Labour” and the Conservatives could person a “viable” way backmost to power.

“But arguably they should absorption connected … trying to triumph the economical statement and beryllium seen arsenic viable economical stewards” alternatively than trying to pursuit backmost voters they mislaid connected the close to Reform UK.

– Winning backmost votes mislaid astatine the wide election

The Conservatives secured 121 seats astatine the wide predetermination successful July, losing constituencies to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK successful antithetic parts of the country.

Labour won astir 300 much seats than the Tories with 33% of the vote, compared to the Conservatives’ 23%.

As good arsenic reuniting the enactment successful Parliament, Lord Hayward said that nether the caller leader, the enactment has to “get a connection crossed to the nationalist astatine large” astir their presumption arsenic Labour’s main opposition.

“They’ve got voters connected the left, radical who went disconnected to the Lib Dems and took ample numbers of seats disconnected the Tories, and they’ve got voters connected the right, and each those who abstained.

“They’ve got to find a connection that fundamentally says, ‘we are the coherent opposition’.

“It’s not going to hap immediately, but it’s a question of whether they tin bash that implicit months.”

He said that MPs would “particularly” person to enactment implicit that play to “show that they are a cohesive group”.

Despite the nonaccomplishment of seats and votes successful the wide election, Mr Drummond said helium thought warnings astir the imaginable size of Labour’s bulk worked good for the Conservatives.

“One of the, I think, palmy things that the Tories did successful the predetermination was saying, ‘don’t springiness Labour a supermajority’.”

He added: “It did benignant of absorption attraction connected the size of the imaginable Labour win, alternatively than the question of who bash you privation to beryllium successful power.”