This week, James McSweeney wrote for The Critic about Kemi Badenoch, MP for North West Essex and candidate for the Conservative leadership, and her unfortunate tendency to say one thing yet do something very different. She talks about the problems with wokeness, McSweeney explained, and yet promoted ultra-left wing regulations.

Another recent example is more stark. In an interview with Iain Dale for LBC, Badenoch asserted that she “had never opposed any planning in [her] constituency”. “I didn’t oppose homes because I remember what it was like to buy my first home,” said Badenoch.

Perhaps Mrs Badenoch’s memory had let her down. According to an article Parliament Square has seen from the Saffron Walden Reporter from 2017, Badenoch opposed Walden School, which had faced a radical decline in student numbers, being sold off for housing. 

Another article, from the Walden Local, demonstrates that Badenoch lent her support to a campaign to “protect [Walden School] from housing development”. “I will … continue to do all I can to assist,” Badenoch said.

In 2020, when the government launched a consultation on planning reform, Badenoch made distinctly NIMBY-ish noises. “Many residents will be concerned about what this means for housing numbers and whether we will be asked to build more than what is sustainable for our community,” she said, “I encourage everyone to engage with the consultation as decisions will be made based on the responses received.”

Later, Badenoch “welcomed the news that local housing targets for Uttlesford and Chelmsford [would] no longer be increased”. “The proposals to increase the number of houses to be built here would not work for our constituency,” she said, “Particularly for Uttlesford which does not have an up to date adopted local plan in place.” 

“This plan must ensure the rural identity of our constituency remains,” Badenoch continued. Perhaps true. Parliament Square has no particular opinion on housing development in Uttlesford and Chelmsford. But is this compatible with Badenoch’s claim that she “never opposed any planning in [her] constituency”? No more than eating a large pepperoni pizza and slamming a few Peronis is compatible with the claim that one is on a diet.

Time and time again, the world that Badenoch describes is very different to the world that we actually live in. Defending her watery stance on leaving the ECHR, Badenoch claimed that France is able to “send back” 70 per cent of illegal migrants. She doubled down on this claim in an interview with Patrick Christys of GB News. 

Badenoch appears to be referring to the fact that France only accepts about 30 per cent of asylum claims. But this does not mean that the other 70 per cent are deported. Indeed, in 2022 Le Monde observed that only a small percentage of deportation orders were being executed. Infamously, the alleged murderer of 12-year-old Lola Daviet had been ordered to leave France but had simply stayed.

Kemi Badenoch has put a lot of emphasis on her “authenticity”. Perhaps she believes that all the things she says are true. Parliament Square has no special insight into her soul. But the fact remains that a lot of the things she says — both about the world and about herself — are untrue. This is of tremendous relevance to the Conservative Party, which, above all, should be trying to establish its reliability.