Kemi Badenoch

Burnham used his Labour conference speech in Liverpool on 29 September 2026 to promise a manifesto commitment to a new electoral system. He opened a National Commission on Electoral Reform to every party but named no replacement for First past the post and appointed no chair.

Badenoch gave the Conservative answer in a PA Media interview on 2 October. She turned the invitation down and cast the whole exercise as a way to entrench the left in power. Her objection rests on WHO would benefit rather than on any rival model, since Burnham had offered none. Without the main opposition party, the Commission cannot claim the cross-party backing its name implies.

When Nigel Farage resigned his Clacton seat on 7 July 2026 to force a by-election, Badenoch called it a "fake by-election" and kept the Conservatives off the ballot. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, The Greens and Restore Britain stayed out too, leaving the satirical Count Binface as the only declared challenger at the time.

She did not rule out a later fight. Badenoch said the party would contest a genuine second election if the standards inquiry into Farage led to a recall petition. The boycott left the Conservatives without a test of their own support in a seat they had held until 2024, and Farage won it back on 13 August against no major-party opponent.