We need to bring back the toughness: Kemi gets involved in soft policing, Mickey Mouse gets a degree… and reveals that when Jenrick defected to Reform, it was all she could do not to break open the champagne!

Last week, a survey of dentists found that Kemi Badenoch’s smile is the most beautiful in British politics.

On the face of it, the Tory leader doesn’t have much to smile about at the start of the week, when forecasters expect the restive electorate to defeat 600 Conservative councilors across England and push the party even further from power in Scotland and Wales.

But Ms Badenoch believes the Tories are on the rise, albeit they still have a ‘long road’ ahead of them to restore public confidence.

And she can’t resist a toothy grin when asked about the impact of high-profile defections to the reforms, such as Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, who were labeled hugely damaging but which she says have produced a more united party.

“I mean, it was the only thing I could do not to break open the champagne,” she laughs.

“It just had to be very formal so people didn’t think we were celebrating!”

The polls, which have given Reform a wide lead over the Tories, show that some sort of adjustment between the two right-wing parties will be necessary if both parties want to form a stable government and keep out a blob coalition of Greens, socialists and nationalists on the left.

Ms Badenoch acknowledges that Britain is in a “multi-party era”, which is likely to produce grim results for both traditional main parties on Thursday.

But for now she rejects any idea of ​​a deal on reform. “These were the people who caused problems in my party,” she says.

‘They’re gone now. Then why would I invite trouble again? You can’t do that.’

Personal relations with Nigel Farage also remain on the frosty side.

In a recent interview with this newspaper, Mr Farage revealed that former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft had mischievously placed the two leaders on the same table at an 80th birthday party.

Mr Farage said he had had a good chat with Ms Badenoch’s ‘charming’ husband, Hamish, but hinted he found her quite a tough job. It’s fair to say that memories may vary.

She acknowledges that the map was “pretty funny,” but adds, “I had a good time.” Nigel didn’t seem to be enjoying himself. I had a great time.

“I was dancing because at the end of the day, you still have to find the joy in work and the joy in life, no matter the circumstances. And I’m one of the lucky people in life.’

Cheerful but tough, she likes to emphasize. Because whatever happens in this week’s polls, Ms Badenoch is beginning to lay out an argument she hopes will return the Tories to power at the next election.

And this approach means giving politics a much harder edge than either major party has sought in recent years.

The public, she says, is “crying out” for a government that will crack down on those who try to take advantage of the generosity of ordinary people, whether that’s through low-level crime, bogus asylum claims or choosing a life on benefits.

She argues that there has been a “collapse of consequences” for misconduct, which has led to a dangerous rift in the fabric of society. She points to the epidemic of shoplifting, fare evasion and telephone theft, but also to the sky-high social bill and the lax asylum system.

“That’s what happens when we stop being tough,” she says. ‘If you want to be nice, you also have to be tough. Instead, we do the kindness without the harshness.

‘So we give the benefit, but we don’t force the people who can work to work. We help people who apply for asylum, and if they cheat the system, we don’t do anything about it.

“They hurt people, they don’t go to jail, they don’t get deported. They pretend to be gay, or they pretend to have converted to Christianity, and then they bring their children and their wives, or they go back to the mosque. And nothing happens. We need to reduce the consequences.”

Ms. Badenoch says she is a “subscriber” to the “broken windows” approach to crime pioneered in New York decades ago.

“If people get away with small things, they will move on to bigger crimes,” she says. To this end, the Tories have promised to fund a further 10,000 police officers. And Ms Badenoch has clear views on what they should do as part of a ‘take back the streets’ campaign.

“We don’t want them doing non-crime hate incidents and all that kind of stuff,” she says.

‘Immediate justice. If people are openly smoking drugs, they should be dealt with very quickly and brought to justice. If they spray graffiti, they have to clean it up themselves.’

The latter is said with feeling after she took the Shadow Cabinet on a campaign visit to clean up graffiti on an estate in Herne Hill in London.

“It took us ages,” she says. “The media had left and we were still cleaning. That wall is now clean, but people need to understand how much it costs and what it takes.’

Ms Badenoch rejects the idea that she is being outdone by the reforms, saying they are “all noise, all swagger”, with a range of policies that will “set the country on fire”. The more populist parties, she says, are “caving in” to “fragmentation” in society, at a time when divisions need to be healed.

She cites as an example Mr Farage’s new plan to place immigration detention centers in Green-voting constituencies.

“That’s how you destroy the country,” she says. ‘We are the party that wants to bring people together again.

‘That [policy] is not a serious matter. I mean, there will be people in those constituencies who didn’t vote Green. Why are you punishing them?’

Nevertheless, the reforms are on course to seriously damage the Tories in Thursday’s election.

Mrs Badenoch campaigned again yesterday in Essex – once a Tory stronghold, where she and half the Shadow Cabinet have their constituencies – but now threatened by the blue-green tide of reform.

Polls show her more popular – or at least less unpopular – than rival party leaders including Sir Keir, Farage and Zack Polanski. But a major improvement in Tory polling is yet to come.

There is, she admits, “a lot to do” to regain public trust after the crushing defeat in 2024.

“You have to sort out one thing at a time, and the more I sort, the more people can see,” she says. “It gets better.”

With the average age of Tory voters at the last election now over 60, Ms Badenoch is working to attract more younger voters, including by abolishing stamp duty and focusing heavily on youth unemployment, which is now, shockingly, higher than in the EU.

Funding for so-called Mickey Mouse degrees is being cut, with a new emphasis on high-quality apprenticeships.

“We want to get them out of those terrible diplomas that actually give them debts but no prospects,” she says.

While the Tories will lose hundreds of seats on Thursday, they may take some solace in the fact that, after losing two-thirds of the seats they defended last year, they may be able to retain more than half this week.

Labor, meanwhile, looks set to lose three-quarters of its own country in a bloodbath that could topple the prime minister.

Ms Badenoch is clear that Labor has the right to change its leader between elections, but also warns this will not work.

“If you don’t have a mandate, you have a very hard time,” she says. ‘And whoever comes in will come in two years, without a mandate.

‘They can’t fix it, it’s already too late. It doesn’t matter if it’s Keir Starmer or (Angela) Rayner or (Ed) Miliband, they’re all as bad as each other.

“These people had no plan. They just thought everything would be fine as long as they weren’t Tories.

‘This is also Nigel Farage’s strategy. But it is not a political strategy. You have to have a plan for the country.”

The Tories, she says, are working on a plan to “show that we are competent again.”

‘People have had enough of it. We did some things wrong. We’ve acknowledged and apologised, whether it’s immigration, whether it’s taxes, Net Zero, which I never wanted anyway, people know I changed that whole policy.

“We get it and we’re coming to help.

“Hope is coming,” she says finally. ‘We want people to linger there. We have Labor for a maximum of three more years. Then they come out.

“There is hope coming from the Conservatives.”