Oct 7, 2026 · 19 min · 7 segments
It’s Kemi Badenoch’s big day at Conservative conference - but it’s not just the adoring party faithful she has to impress. Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy look at how the leader’s speech will land with…
Anne McElvoyHost
Sam CoatesHost
[laughs] I think I'm the, probably the only person in my house who really gives much attention to that.
So [laughs] but to look at that in the, the, the party conference as the party funding, uh, lens, Sam, one of the health checks, as you say, that, that we get here is just bumping into people, some I've known a lot of years.
They've been through the party thick and thin, really often in the last years, quite thin in terms of, of finance and money raising.
So how are they minded at the moment? Well, I would say net positive, uh, on Kemi Badenoch.
Uh, she has a treasurer, quite a quiet guy you, you don't hear a lot from, but he is, he's very significant, uh, in the Conservative Party today, called Graham Edwards.
He's a, for a start, he's a mega, mega successful businessman, uh, in his own right, but he gives a lot more time to the role than a lot of his predecessors.
He joked something like, you know, he used to do about an hour and a half a week, and now, you know, sort of Kemi is on his case 24/7.
But look, uh, there is concern about the impact of that huge bazooka reform, £72 million donation.
It massively overshadows what the Conservatives have been able to raise in the last calendar year.
I had a quick look back, uh, just to remind ourselves, 15 million in donations, uh, uh, going up this year as far as we can see in, you know, first quarter by 25%.
That's a substantial leap up, but the, you know, it's not an immense amount of money to run a, a, a big machine, uh, trying to get ready to fight both Reform and Labor.
And it's all very skinny, isn't it, compared to that number knocking about from Ben Dello and Christopher Harborne, the, those crypto, uh, currency derived, uh, donations.
Tory fundraisers pretty candid with me that they're not gonna get anywhere near that.
One of them said to me, "Just, we just have to hope Nigel and co piss it all away" Which is, you know, that's ...
[laughs] So what is their big hope? Uh, it, it is that Labor's retrospective legislation, that representation of the People's Act, you know, backdated to March the 25th, 26th, that would ban those cryptocurrency donations, uh, cap overseas, uh, donor contributions at 100K annually, which would obviously, you know, would, would cut off a, a lot of that money to Reform.
Kemi Badenoch said in a pre-conference interview, "I don't think retrospective legislation is the right idea." Well- Quite a lot of people who are working, uh, hard at, at the moment to fill the coffers say that they're more like, uh, crossing their fingers and hope [laughs] that it works while they won't want to formally support it because that would level the playing field.
[laughs] I think I'm the, probably the only person in my house who really gives much attention to that.
So [laughs] but to look at that in the, the, the party conference as the party funding, uh, lens, Sam, one of the health checks, as you say, that, that we get here is just bumping into people, some I've known a lot of years.
They've been through the party thick and thin, really often in the last years, quite thin in terms of, of finance and money raising.
So how are they minded at the moment? Well, I would say net positive, uh, on Kemi Badenoch.
Uh, she has a treasurer, quite a quiet guy you, you don't hear a lot from, but he is, he's very significant, uh, in the Conservative Party today, called Graham Edwards.
He's a, for a start, he's a mega, mega successful businessman, uh, in his own right, but he gives a lot more time to the role than a lot of his predecessors.
He joked something like, you know, he used to do about an hour and a half a week, and now, you know, sort of Kemi is on his case 24/7.
But look, uh, there is concern about the impact of that huge bazooka reform, £72 million donation.
It massively overshadows what the Conservatives have been able to raise in the last calendar year.
I had a quick look back, uh, just to remind ourselves, 15 million in donations, uh, uh, going up this year as far as we can see in, you know, first quarter by 25%.
That's a substantial leap up, but the, you know, it's not an immense amount of money to run a, a, a big machine, uh, trying to get ready to fight both Reform and Labor.
And it's all very skinny, isn't it, compared to that number knocking about from Ben Dello and Christopher Harborne, the, those crypto, uh, currency derived, uh, donations.
Tory fundraisers pretty candid with me that they're not gonna get anywhere near that.
One of them said to me, "Just, we just have to hope Nigel and co piss it all away" Which is, you know, that's ...
[laughs] So what is their big hope? Uh, it, it is that Labor's retrospective legislation, that representation of the People's Act, you know, backdated to March the 25th, 26th, that would ban those cryptocurrency donations, uh, cap overseas, uh, donor contributions at 100K annually, which would obviously, you know, would, would cut off a, a lot of that money to Reform.
Kemi Badenoch said in a pre-conference interview, "I don't think retrospective legislation is the right idea." Well- Quite a lot of people who are working, uh, hard at, at the moment to fill the coffers say that they're more like, uh, crossing their fingers and hope [laughs] that it works while they won't want to formally support it because that would level the playing field.
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