Dear John,

Well, there it is. Kemi Badenoch will lead the Conservatives through this new era in the party’s history. As this historically powerful political movement faces down its own destruction, what populist gambit will they attempt to stave off irrelevance?

We already know. A poll in October revealed that a very substantial portion of Conservative members want to merge with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. The party’s former Ministers and Prime Ministers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss, have argued passionately not to rule out the dark deal.

Kemi Badenoch may be just the person to align the party with the new populist right. Unlike Jenrick, Badenoch has always been a creature of the party’s hard-right. She’s advocated to level down our democracy, and she’s long demonstrated a preference for moral panics and culture wars over meaningful policy proposals.

With a potential Trump presidency on the way across the pond, there’s no way to tell what sinister mutations Britain’s far-right will undergo in the next few years. Bilston council’s recent by-election may be an ominous premonition of what is to come.

We know what it’s like to be governed by culture warriors with no respect for the rules, and no reverence for democratic accountability. A toxic hybrid of Reform and the Conservatives could make Boris Johnson’s premiership – and all the damage he did to our democracy – seem almost pleasant in comparison.

The British public wants real reform to our democratic institutions, so that the issues that matter most to people can finally be discussed on a level playing field. The false promises of the populists threaten only to take us further away from that goal – and potentially drag us down further towards despotism and tyranny.

We can’t let it happen. While the far-right regroups along its extremist lines, we need to be working double-time to build up a powerful xxxxxx of democracy, to create  defensive systems that stave off the influx of dodgy data and dark money undermining the public’s right to choose their own path. But we can’t do it without you.

All the best,

Mark

Mark Kieran

CEO, Open Britain