It is in the national interest that Conservatives provide some effective opposition

Editorial: Amid the first grumblings of unease among her backbenchers, Kemi Badenoch insists her reshaping of the Tory prospectus is underway – but unless she emerges soon with some policies, Nigel Farage’s party, with fair momentum behind it, will fill the vacuum she has created

In her new year message, Kemi Badenoch warned her Conservative Party that its renewal process is “a long-term project” that “may be bumpy along the way”. Vowing to do things differently, she said: “Watch this space.”

The Tory leader’s problem is that many in her own party currently see only a blank space when it comes to its policies and direction. She speaks of a four- or five-year journey but, two months after her election as leader, the first grumblings of unease among Tory backbenchers can be detected.

Some senior figures are warning privately that Ms Badenoch must show real progress by the May local elections in England, which sets the bar high because the Tories did well and Labour badly when the seats up for grabs were last contested in 2021.

At first glance, it seems foolish for jittery Tory MPs not to give their new leader the time and space to establish herself. Ms Badenoch has a case when she argues there is no point in rushing out a detailed policy prospectus now when the next general election will probably take place in 2029. She recalls that early pledges after Labour’s previous landslide in 1997 – such as William Hague’s promise to “save the pound” – did her party no favours.

However, times are different today. During the Blair-Brown era, the Tories remained the only real alternative to Labour, even if it took them 13 long years to regain power. This time, Ms Badenoch faces fierce competition on her right flank from Reform UK; the opinion polls put Nigel Farage’s latest party in a three-way battle with Labour and Tories.

The Tories do not like the feeling of the irrepressible Mr Farage snapping at their heels. If Ms Badenoch cannot halt Reform’s undoubted momentum, calls from within the Tory party for an electoral pact with Mr Farage to “reunite the right” will grow, even though she opposes such an agreement.

But her response to Reform has been woeful. When Mr Farage trumpeted claims it had overtaken the Tories’ 131,680 grassroots members, Ms Badenoch walked straight into his elephant trap by disputing his figures, foolishly amplifying the story during the quiet Christmas period.

To her critics, this looked like the mixture of impetuosity and abrasiveness that had led them to doubt her leadership credentials and was the same petulance she displays in some media interviews. “You’re asking the wrong question. I reject the premise of the question,” she told the BBC’s Amol Rajan when he pressed her about specific policies. Such an approach is not tenable for the leader of a serious party.

The doubters worry Ms Badenoch has caused Sir Keir Starmer few problems at Prime Minister’s Questions. Although not many voters tune in, the weekly joust is important for party morale.

Ms Badenoch was happy to join in after Elon Musk launched his social media barrage against Sir Keir Starmer, claiming the prime minister had failed to tackle historic grooming cases when he was director of public prosecutions. The leader of the opposition then called for a national inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal”. But such an opportunist move as this is no substitute for policy initiatives.

Some Tories take comfort from Labour’s rocky start in government but they cannot be complacent: there is no guarantee Sir Keir’s administration will continue in this vein. Nor can the Tories, as they obsess about Mr Farage, ignore the threat to them in their once-impregnable blue wall in the south of England from the rejuvenated Liberal Democrats.

Although the Tories will soon unveil several policy commissions, that is unlikely to reassure Ms Badenoch’s internal critics. She was right to acknowledge the Tories’ failures on immigration in office, but making one short speech on the issue will not restore the public’s trust in her party.

If she leaves a vacuum on policy, Reform will happily fill it. True, Mr Farage would doubtless manage to outflank most new Tory policies from the right. But Ms Badenoch would then at least be able to join the battle and expose Reform’s unrealistic prospectus. At last year’s election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that Reform’s plans for higher spending and tax cuts did not add up, to the tune of tens of billions.

Ms Badenoch does not need to unveil an A to Z encyclopaedia of policy but The Independent thinks she does need to say more soon about her direction of travel. With Mr Farage on the scene, she does not enjoy the luxury of being able to wait.

It is in the national interest that the Tories provide effective opposition and hold the Labour government to account. If they fail in that duty to the country under Ms Badenoch’s leadership, the winner will not be Labour but Mr Farage, as his right-wing nationalist populism emerges as the most popular alternative to Sir Keir’s party.