Could Kemi Badenoch’s Post Office showdown wreck her No 10 ambitions?

The business secretary has taken an unusual risk with her war of words with Henry Staunton, the former Post Office boss she sacked – and it looks sure to backfire on her, says John Rentoul

Business secretary Kemi Badenoch’s combativeness has been an asset to her so far, but is it turning into a liability? (PA)

People like a risk-taker, and there is something exhilarating about Kemi Badenoch’s recklessness.

Conservatives like her because she is so aggressively dismissive of Labour MPs convinced of their own righteousness – and a lot of non-Conservatives like her because she is so unlike most cautious, evasive and bland politicians.

Her statement in the Commons yesterday was high drama. Advertised as a statement on “Post Office Governance and Horizon Compensation Schemes”, which could hardly have sounded duller, she launched straight into an escalation of her personal war against Henry Staunton, whom she sacked as chair of the Post Office.