Standing in for Mark Littlewood, Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns of Popular Conservatism notes that a recent opinion poll put the Conservative Party on 16%. When will the penny drop with Kemi Badenoch that the party needs more Conservative positions? And quickly! 

"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life."

That was Jeremy Thorpe's witty observation after Harold Macmillan's 'Night of the Long Knives' reshuffle in 1962 when he fired a third of his Cabinet. 

The reshuffle conducted by Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday wasn't as dramatic (they never are when you are in opposition), but although she didn't lay down her friends for her political life, as the Conservative Party tanks in the polls, there is a feeling that she is fighting to save it.

You can tell a lot about a leader by the way they execute reshuffles and the one we witnessed on Tuesday was poorly executed. I couldn't work out what Kemi Badenoch was trying to achieve other than annoy many of us on the right. 

She has given an interview to the Financial Times informing readers that she wants to be like the chainsaw-wielding Argentinian President, Javier Milei, but I don't think that I am being unfair when I say that her deeds don't match her words. 

The party is continuing with these seemingly endless policy reviews (please let them come to an end), and in this fog of confusion and contradiction, I still don't know in which direction she intends to steer the party. And more importantly, neither do the voters. 

The Conservative Party desperately needs a reset. It didn't need a reshuffle, and it most certainly doesn't need years of navel-gazing trying to work out what it stands for.

We know what Conservative principles are: individual and family responsibility, low taxation, limited government (because we also believe that individuals and families can make better decisions about their lives than civil servants and ministers), free trade, a low regulation economy, the rule of law, Parliamentary sovereignty, defending our country and its interests. Just a few to get you started and there are many more.

My point is, with these principles which we hold dear, it isn't difficult to formulate clear Conservative positions. At least it shouldn't be. It certainly wasn't for Margaret Thatcher. Detailed policies took a while to formulate, but there was a clear direction of travel. Sadly, I don't sense that today. 

I was scrolling through my phone yesterday and noticed a clip of an interview I gave to Mike Graham on Talk five months ago. As you will hear, I called for more Conservative positions from Kemi Badenoch and commented that as the Conservatives, Reform and Labour were all polling in the mid-20s, everything was to play for.

PopCon is still calling for more and clearer Conservative positions. Our opinion panel surveys have highlighted that our supporters think the same, too, and I hear it from Conservative Party members almost every day.

But one thing has changed since that interview. The party is no longer polling in the mid-20s. The latest opinion poll has it on 16%.

When will the penny drop?

Keep fighting for freedom!