Kemi Badenoch is taking a perilous path on immigration
The great thing about a Kemi Badenoch interview is that you never have to call in the translators to work out what she’s said.
Today, she was right behind the third runway at Heathrow.
She backed the chancellor’s softening language on non-doms.
And most strikingly, she said in terms that we need to recast our debate about immigration.
Politics latest: Reeves ‘absolutely happy’ to look at joining EU customs group
Badenoch has a difficult path to tread between, on the one hand, employers’ pleas for more migration; and on the other Reform’s demand for net-zero immigration.
She’s chosen to navigate the landscape by asserting that who the immigrants are is just as important as how many; the more easily someone fits into society the more numbers we can take.
Badenoch is aiming to transform an argument that has barely moved on since Enoch Powell ignited it more than half a century ago.
But it’s a perilous path for the Tories to take. Whether the country responds could determine whether she is still Conservative leader this time next year.
Watch the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show every Sunday on Sky News from 8.30am