RAJKUMMAR NEEDS QUALITY CONTROL

THE Tory tribe gathering for the party's annual conference are sure this has been a good year for party leader Kemi Badenoch. The Birmingham Tapestry – a 25-metre pastiche of the British Museum's famous Bayeux exhibit created for the party conference – could even seem hubristic. Queen Kemi's leadership triumph is heralded in front of a wailing Robert Jenrick, cast out as a traitor, while Reform leader Nigel Farage argues with a bin by the sea. Depicting chancellor John Healey as a money-grabbing goblin risks satirical mockery tipping into something cruder.

The game of thrones back in 1066 was a three-way battle. So is today's battle for Downing Street. Badenoch is the first leader of the opposition since Michael Foot to face serious questions about whether she is the main alternative prime minister. The Conservatives fell behind Reform early in Badenoch's leadership, lagging in third for eighteen months, but are now closing the gap for second place again. It has been a comparatively good year for Badenoch because it has been much more turbulent for Farage. The progress of the past twelve months – with the leader's standing improving more than her party's – has mostly mitigated the retreat of Badenoch's first year. Polling guru John Curtice told a Birmingham fringe the Conservatives are still trailing where they were at their landslide general election defeat.