The Conservative Party is addicted to self-destruction

Kemi Badenoch is on a different planet.

Kemi Badenoch is doubling down on climate denial – rounding off the week by announcing two pro-oil policies that could have been lifted straight from a 1980s Exxon boardroom memo.

Speaking at the Scottish Conservative conference, the Tory leader declared that – should she become prime minister – she would scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas profits and reverse the ban on new North Sea licences. In other words, a manifesto written in thick crude.

These are not just bad policies – they are politically tone-deaf, economically incoherent, and environmentally reckless. But perhaps that’s the point. The Conservative Party – or what remains of it – has entered a death spiral of its own design. And Badenoch is vying to become its leading demolition expert.

This is not serious politics, and it’s certainly not a serious policy platform. It’s a bizarre form of self-sabotage in which certain ideas are pursued based on whether they’ll perform well among the online far-right, rather than whether they’re popular among the general public.

In the alternate Tory reality, the prize goes to whoever can set the country’s future on fire the fastest. Liz Truss currently holds that particular title, but Badenoch is vying for her crown.

Let’s be clear: action to tackle climate change remains widely popular among the British public. Even among former Tory voters – particularly those who have flirted with the Liberal Democrats – green policies enjoy majority support. But in Badenoch’s warped political universe, these voters don’t seem to matter.

Instead, her pitch seems aimed squarely at a narrow, radicalised rump – the minority of voters who would torch net zero and believe Britain can frack its way to glory.

Her position is politically and economically absurd. Shell paid so little tax in the UK last year that we all ended up subsidising the oil giant (to the tune of £12.3 million).

Under Badenoch’s plan, that kind of corporate freeloading would become business as usual. If her economic logic is clear at all, it is this: polluters get paid, and the public picks up the bill.

💷 Follow the (oil) money

So why is she doing this? Our latest DeSmog investigation offers one clue: Badenoch’s party took £250,000 from oil investors and climate science deniers during the same period that she ditched the party’s commitment to net zero by 2050.

It’s a grim echo of the Truss era – the disastrous 49-day premiership that pledged tax cuts for the wealthy, tanked the pound, and blew a multi-billion-pound hole in the public finances.

Truss, too, surrounded herself with libertarian donors, fossil fuel lobbyists, ideological zealots, and swallowed their delusions. It was fantasy economics – and Badenoch appears to be auditioning for the sequel.

The death spiral

This is not a party learning from its mistakes – it’s a party addicted to self-destruction, permanently relapsing into the comfort of ideological purity, no matter the cost to its poll ratings.

The Conservative Party used to pride itself on pragmatic realism. It would outflank an often ideologically obstinate Labour Party by mirroring the public mood. Now, the opposite is true.

Today, the Conservative Party is ruled by radical ideologies, alienating it from the public.

It’s not enough to call Badenoch’s ideas foolish. They are, frankly, dangerous – for the economy, the environment, and potentially for Britain’s reputation.

But don’t expect a change of course. When a party becomes addicted to its own ruin, it doesn’t stop until the wreckage is complete.

“One of our finest investigative journalists”.
– Peter Oborne

About me

I’m an investigative journalist and current affairs writer who has worked with the New York Times, the Guardian, the Mirror, the New European, Novara Media, New Statesman, Led By Donkeys, and others.

I specialise in exposing dark money and radical right-wing ecosystems.

I also write a lot about inequality and elitism, and am the author of two books on those very subjects: Fortress London, and Bullingdon Club Britain.

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